Savarkar And His Times (1950)

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SAVARKAR

AND

HIS TIMES

BY

DHANANJAY KEER

All rights reserved by the Author.

First published VJ50

^ Bamb^dekar, at the India Printing Works,

Lan^ Fori, Bombay, and published by A. V. Keer
77 Bhageshwar Bhuvan, Lady Hardinge Road, Bombay 28!

TO ALL THOSE

WHO FOUGHT AND FELL IN BHARAT
AND PERISHED IN THE ANDAMANS
AND IN FOREIGN LANDS
FOR INDIAN INDEPENDENCE

PREFACE

Swatantryaveer Savarkar needs no introduction to the
Indian public, neither does his biography. Long ago, Mr. Asaf
Ali described Savarkar as the spirit of Shivaji and the late
Sri Srinivas Sastri said of him that “ he was a great and fear-
less patriot and volumes could be written about his yeoman
services in the cause of Indian Freedom.” This is, however,
too small a volume to describe that spirit and those services
adequately.

Savarkar’s life has already appeared in almost all Indian
languages, and in his twenties it has appeared in almost all
European languages. But excepting the great Marathi bio-
graphy by Sri S. L. Karandikar, who wrote it about seven
years ago, no book has dealt exhaustively with the various
facets of his life. Hence this is a humble attempt to give in
detail the myriad sides of Savarkar’s life in its proper historic
perspective. This book provides a fuller survey of Savarkar’s
revolutionary, literary, political and social activities and
movements. It also deals with his personal life, and covers
his life upto the present moment.

I have made a faithful attempt to present a true and correct
picture of the various events and incidents that occurred in
the life of Savarkar, and also the trends of thoughts and
opinions entertained in those times. Most of them do not
necessarily reflect my personal views. But they are narrated
to record matters of mere history. To quote Sir Edmund
Gosse, I have attempted ‘ to give a faithful portrait of a soul
in its adventures through life \

Savarkar^s life is romantic, epic and volcanic and so it is
full of flashes and flames. Bharat has just shed her revolu-
tionary shell, and entered an evolutionary phase. And a
revolutionary realist as he is, Savarkar now in Free India
naturally insists on the adoption of peaceful, constitutional
and democratic means by the people for attaining their

vi

PREFACE

objectives. This was only a logical corollary to Savarkar s ideal
as proclaimed in his historic work on ‘ 1857 ^

My earnest appeal, therefore, to all lovers of Indian Free-
dom and true democracy is that they should go through this
book dispassionately and in a rationalistic manner and know
exactly the real Savarkar. And if the book helps them know
the real Savarkar, I shall feel glad that the object of writing
this book is fulfilled.

My debt of gratitude is gladly acknowledged to all those
who read and scrutinised the manuscript and made valuable
suggestions, and particularly to those who constantly
encouraged me, but whose names I omit for obvious reasons.

I also gratefully acknowledge my debt to the various authors,
journals and publications from whom I have drawn excerpts.
Lastly, my special thanks are due to Messrs. India Printing
Works, for their prompt execution and exquisite printing of
this work.

Bombay, May 10, 1950.

D. K.

CONTENTS

Preface v

I. Childhood and Youth 1

II. The Rising Leader 15

III. Revolutionary Activities in Europe 27

IV. The Storm Breaks ..... 49

V. Epic Escape and World-Famous Trials . 70

VI. The Indian Bastille ..... 93

VII. Genius Thrives in Jail .... 119

VIII. Out op His Grave ..... 141

IX. Social Revolution ..... 153

X. Rationalist and Author .... 181

XI. Back to Freedom ...... 193

XII. Whirlwind Propaganda ..... 198

XIII. Hindu Manifesto or Savarkarism . . . 223

XIV. Differences with the Congress . . 251

XV. Roosevelt, Churchill and Cripps 269

XVI. Mahasabha Marches On .... 283

XVII. The Writing on the Wall .... 303

XVIII. Fight for Akhand Hindusthan . 322

XIX. From Parity to Pakistan .... 342

XX. The Red Fort Ordeal and After 368

XXI. The Man 391

Index 419

ILLUSTRATIONS

SWATANTRYAVEER SaVARKAR

Frontispiece

Savarkar and his Comrades

facing page

80

India House in 1909

99

81

The Savarkar Brothers . . . •

J)

99

152

Batch of Ratnagiri Hindu Sanghatanists .

99

153

Madura Procession

99

99

208

The Trio and the Generalissimo

99

99

209

Savarkar with Subhas and Working Committee „

99

260

On the Occasion of the Cripps Mission

99

99

261

Orator

99

99

296

A Mammoth Meeting ....

99

99

297

Savarkar in Calcutta Procession in 1949 .

99

99

388

Shraddhamata, Savarkar and Dr. Khare in
Calcutta in 1949 ....

99

99

389

Savarkar Family Group ....

99

99

389

CHAPTER I

Childhood and Youth

I

In politically fallen, socially degraded and financially ruined
Hindusthan, the eighteen-eighties and nineties witnessed the
darkest period in the history of our country. The first peep
of the dawn in the form of the refonns of 1909 was still to
come. The dawn of 1919 was beyond the horizon. The
spiritual planets like Maharshi Ranade, Swami Dayananda
Saraswati and Swami Vivekananda were kindling light of
social regeneration and spiritual heritage. Dayananda,
Dadabhai, Ranade and Vivekananda were rousing the people
from their slumber ; Ram Singh Kuka and Wasudeo Balwant
had disturbed their thoughts for a good while. Tilak was
carrying discontent and unrest from towns to villages and
cottages. Babu Anand Mohan Bose and Babu Surendranath
Banerjee were infusing a spirit of new life in Bengal. Dreading
the resurgent revolts for the overthrow of its power, the
British mind was deeply engrossed in finding out a safety
valve for the wrath of the Indian revolution. And not long
before, the British top-ranking officers and politicians founded
the Indian National Congress on December 28, 1885, despite
the fears and opposition of Sir Syed Ahmed, who warned the
Muslims to keep aloof from the Congress.

Sprung from the neo-ideology of this institution, which was
fathered by Englishmen and mothered by the Indian
intelligentsia, the Moderates in the following decades placed
mild, just and bare demands of the Indians before their god-
sent and enlightened rulers and pleaded for them with all
the force and prayerfulness of their master-minds. For,
strangely enough, they sincerely believed that the victors
would of themselves bless the vanquished with the much
cherished reforms.

The press was almost mu 2 u:led. The Arms Act was
introduced, not, as it may be imagined, with a view to

2 SAVARKAS AND HIS TIMES

ddiveriHg Indians but to degenerating and emasculating them
further. Bills and budgets were prepared, printed, published
and enforced before they were even known or seen by
Indians. The Ilbert Bill also fomented the growing ill-feeling.
The First Indian Councils Act of 1861 was slightly widened
in 1892. In short, it was a shameful and mournful period.
The alternative was reform or revolution.

Two events typified the new year 1883. Swami Dayananda
Saraswati, a leader of renaissance, was at the end of his
earthly pilgrimage, and Krantiveer Wasudeo Balwant, a man
of great action, laid his bones in Aden longing for the establish-
ment of an Indian Republic. In such a tense atmosphere sin:-
charged with unfulfilled aspirations was bom Swatantrya
Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar on Monday, the 28th May
1883, at 10 p.m. at Bhagur, a village near Nasik. The aims
and aspirations of the Swami and ICrantiveer were to be
imified in a great idea, new voice and new nationalism.
Seventy-five days before this birth, Karl Marx, the Prophet
of the Proletariat, passed away unnoticed in a London comer
and sixty-two days after this birth was born Benito Mussolini
who later moulded the destiny of Italy.

Savarkar springs from the illustrious clan of Chitpavan
Brahmins that produced Nanasahib of 1857, Wasudeo Balwant
and Lokamanya Tilak, all of whom strove to snatch the crown
of Independence from the hands of the British. The Savarkars
originally came from the Konkan, a land symbolising the
great feat of reclamation performed by Parshxuram who is a
mighty mythological figure. During the declining days of
the Peshwa rule, the Savarkars were an important family
which had moved in and seen great events. They were
Jahgirdars of a small village, Rahiu'i, and enjoyed the honour
of palanquin for their acknowledged eminence in Sanskrit
scholarship. The blood, bones and brains of such ancestors
carved out this epic figure of Indian Revolution, Vinayak
Savarkar, who, like Mazzini, ushered in the revolutionary war
of liberation in the annals of Hindusthan. And it is to be
noted that, as, with the rise of Mazzini, the Austrian rule
over Italy began to wane, so with the rise of De Valera and
Savarkar the British Empire began to wither and vanish.

CHXLOBOOD AND YOUTH

3

n

A man of position and personality, Vinayak’s father,
Damodarpant Savarkar, was well-built, studious, stem and
self-respecting. In spite of his English education he loved
and remembered his past. He was gifted with poetical talents
and was a good conversationalist. What is more, he was an
admirer of Tilak. Damodarpant’s firm and undemonstrative
temperament did not stand any nonsense from his children.
Vinayak’s mother, Radhabai, was a pious, lovely and bright
lady known for the tenderness of her heart. Of these parents
were born three sons and one daughter. The first was Ganesh,
the second Vinayak, the hero of this biography, the third was
a daughter named Mainabai and the fourth was Narayan.

Damodarpant was a good-natured and religious-minded
man. He recited the epics Mahahharata and Ramayana and
read out to his sons Ballads and Bakhars on Pratap, Shivaji
and the Peshwas. He was a warm admirer of Homer and
had studied and read Pope’s translation of the Iliad to his
sons. It was the practice of Savarkar’s mother to make her
eldest son read chapters from the Mahahharata or the Rama-
yana to her children before they retired to bed. Thus the
Ballads, Bakhars, legends, heroic exploits, historical episodes
and mythological stories powerfully contributed to the mental
development of child Savarkar.

Vinayak, the infant Jahgirdar, was sent to the village
school at the age of six. Soon he showed signs of his remark-
able inborn genius. Much of his inspiration he found in
history and epics. His love of books and newspapers was so
great that he read omnivorously, and any book or newspaper
that he laid his hand upon, he read from cover to cover. His
studies were intense, exciting and prolonged. His depth and
intelligence and the immense interest he took in human affairs
can be judged from one incident. While rea ding the history
of the Arabs, he asked his father about the fiirst pages of their
history. The first pages of the book w«re missing. Naturally
the father repUed that they might have been tom off. What
the boy, in fact, wanted to know was the antecedmts of the
Arabs. The range and loftiness of this idea touched the
infinite Universe. Savarkar depicted this idea in one of his

4 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

latter-day poems and concluded that the first pages of all
history are always unknown ! This is the curse on history,
he added.

Vinayak was hardly ten when well-known newspapers from
Poona accepted his poems, not knowing that the contributions
came from a precocious lad. His insatiable thirst for
knowledge, his excellent memory and the pecuhar charm in
his voice and gait impressed every one and raised high hopes
of his future. Damodarpant saw something new and extra-
ordinary in his son that startled him. He was terribly alarm-
ed when one day he saw his son reading the Upmiishads in
the house ; for, reading the Upanishads in a house, it is said,
forebodes evil for the reader’s worldly life. They are to be
read and studied in the woods !

Witty, bold and handsome, Vinayak was also full of pranks.
He once broke the bangles of his sister, and was shielded by
his elder brother in the safe from the wrath of his father. In
his boyhood he learnt archery and riding. To the horror of
his companions he once caught a serpent with a piece of wire
in his hand.

A man is seen at his best in his childhood. Milton says
that childhood shows the man, as the morning shows the day.
Here is an index to the life-book of Savarkar. In June 1893,
serious riots broke between Hindus and Muslims in the
Azamgarh District of the United Provinces and in August of
the same year in Bombay. The news of the atrocities then
perpetrated on the Hindus in the United Provinces and
Bombay fired his blood and he resolved to avenge the woes
and deaths of his co-religionists. The boy Savarkar led a batch
of selected school-mates in a march upon the village mosque.
The battalion of these boys showered stones upon it, shattered
its windows and tiles and returned victorious. This incident
gives the first hint of the heroic mettle Vinayak was made of
and the key to his future daring life and leadership. The
victory, however, was not allowed to go unchallenged. The
Muslim school-boys gave battle to Vinayak, the Hindu
Generalissimo. Although the number of his soldiers decreased
at the time of joining the battle, Vinayak routed the enemy
with missiles like pins, penknives and thorns with which he
had equipped his army. The battle had its lesson. The boy

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 5

leader fell to training and organising his group. For the
military training the group was divided into two detachments
— one Hindu and the other a British or a Muslim — ^to defend
a field or a compound. Always the Hindus won and the
Muslims or the British lost in the mock fights and warfare.

Vinayak completed his Primary Education at the village
school, and moved to Nasik with his elder brother for high-
school education. In the meanwhile, misfortune overtook
the family. Radhabai, Vinayak’s mother, died of cholera,
leaving the children to the care of her husband. At the time
of this fir-st calamity Vinayak was hardly ten. He was
passionately devoted to his mother, and so he felt the loss
terribly. Henceforward his father worked from dawn to dead
of night, personally discharging the household duties and
tending the .small ones affectionately.

In every life there are certain momentous incidents that
decide the fate or change the mode of one’s life. A frustrated
and penniless mutineer from Piedmont asked alms of Mazzini
in the name of the outlaws of Italy. That was the moment of
Mazzini’s conversion and dedication to the struggle for his
country’s Independence. Such an occasion occurred in boy
Savarkar’s life, too. It made an indelible impression on his
mind. Those were the times full of horrid tales. People of
Maharashtra stood between famine and death, plague and
soldiers, the devil and the deep sea, as it were. The harass-
ment caused by the rigid segregation camps during the plague
epidemic, the strict quarantines, the dreadful plague hospitals,
the reckless burning of properties and the outrages on women
reached a climax. The patience of the people was wearing
out. Tilak warned Lord Sandhurst’s Government that they
should not drive the people to desperation.

These countless miseries of the famine and plague-stricken
masses and the excesses committed by the soldiers infuriated
the Chaphekar brothers of Poona, and they shot dead the
Plague Commissioner, Mr. Rand, the bullying incompetent
tyrant and one Mr. Ay erst on June 22, 1897, in Poona, the
traditional cradle of the liberators of Hindusthan. That was
the ‘ auspicious ’ day of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Victoria’s rule. The day was to be celebrated despite the
grinding famine and raging plague. And the celebration was

6 SAVARXAR AMD HIS TIMES

perfonned in Poona in such a way that the whole country
became ablaze with the performance which electrified the
Indian people. Once again Poona proved the historical law that
repression, injustice and racial humiliation give rise to violent
reaction that recoils on the head of the aggressor. As a result
of this assassination, though outwardly on a charge of
publishing seditious articles, Tilak was thrown behind the
bars. Betrayed by the Dravid brothers, Damodarpant
Chaphekar was arrested, tried and sentenced to death. He
embraced gallows with the Giia in his hands on April 18 , 1898 .

But in a slave country struggling for freedom such abnormal
times have a knack of feeling the pulse of a nation and of
showing up simpletons and sycophants and separating traitors
from patriots. Amd nine out of ten informants in such a
country rarely go impunished. Consequently one night with
the stroke of the city gun at nine, went out two bullets and
the Dravid brothers of Poona, the informants in the
Chaphekar trial, were shot dead in the street by the junior
Chaphekar, Vasudeo and his friend Ranade, nephew of the
historian Rajwade. This brave youth Chaphekar, liis another
brother, Balkrishna, and Ranade were also hanged in May
1899. The end of the Chaphekar brothers marks a turning
point in the history of freedom movement of India ; for they
proved to be the harbingers of the coming revolutionary
movement in India.

In the meanwhile, Vinayak had an attack of small-pox at
Nasik and he was back to Bhagiur. There the horrible news
about Chaphekars’ heroic end fell upon Vinayak’s ears. It
drove the boy Savarkar to a grim resolve. He approached the
family Deity, Durga, the Ashtapraharana Dharini, in the
sanctuary and invoked the blessings of the Great Mother, the
source of divine inspiration and strength. Sitting at the feet
of the armed Goddess Durga at dead of night, he took a vow
of striving nobly and sacrificing his nearest and dearest, his
life and all, to fulfil the incomplete mission of the martyred
Chaphekars. He vowed to drive out the Britishers from his
beloved Motherland and to make her free and great once
again. It was the glorious vow of Shivaji. Shivaji the Great
took his vow of liberating his country from foreign domina-
tion at the age of sixteen in the temple of Rohideshwar. Tilak

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 7

took to political agitation at about five-and-twenty after
finishing his college education. Mazzini entered politics at
the age of seventeen, and De Valera, who was born a year
before Savarkar, at thirty, but Savarkar entered politics and
took the vow of liberating his Motherland when he was hardly
sixteen. So sincere, inspired and spontaneous was the love
for his coiuitry burning in his heart !

To stir up his comrades and people Savarkar composed one
night a ballad over the martyred Chaphekars. His face
glowed. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he pored over his
lines. Hearing the sobs, his father woke up and found his
son sitting far into the night by the lamp. He read the lines
of the ballad and clouds shadowed his face. The father scented
a new danger and tried to dissuade his son from those daring
thoughts of martyrdom at so early an age. He gently patted
Vinayak on his back and advised him to take to some light
songs. The father at once understood what those dripping
lines, their spirit and their flash would mean to their author
and his family.

At Nasik Vinayak’s academic career was not extraordinary.
However, the depth of his knowledge and the fire of his
eloquence had been spread far and wide by his teachers.
While a junior high-school student, his article on ‘ The Glory
of Hindusthan’ appeared in two parts as an editorial in the
local paper, Nasik Vaihhav. With the great flow of his words,
breadth of his knowledge and boldness of his views, he easily
towered above all in the elocution competitions. Astounded
at the range of his knowledge and power of his speech, the
judges at first doubted the originality of his views, but
subsequently were glad to own their mistakes. Vinayak’s
poems of welcome to Maharshi Ranade and Tilak and the
several ballads he composed during these years for the village
chorus also won him reputation.

In 1899 Vinayak’s father and imcle succumbed to plague.
Vinayak’s younger brother Narayan was also attacked by
plague. He was removed first to a dilapidated temple on the
outskirts of Bhagur and then to the NasUc Plague Hospital
where Ganeshpant, alias Babarao, looked after him even at
the risk of his own life. Fear lurked in Vinayak’s mind that
Babarao might also catch the infection. And one day it did

8 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

SO happen. Vinayak was terribly shocked. Boy as he was,
he burst into tears in a comer, but he did not give out a word
of it to Babarao’s young wife. The stuff of his courage was
that of a man who stamps his mind upon history. Death was
on the prowl in Nasik which had become the city of the dead.
In this haunted and deserted city Vinayak passed his days
and nights with heart-throbs fearing to hear bad news about
his brothers who were writhing with deadly pain in the
hospital. At last the danger was over. Both the brothers
recovered and returned, and were once more united in a
happy home.

Ill

Stars shine out at night. Although Vinayak’s mind was
filled with these great anxieties, his vow would not let him
sit alone. He was I'estless. He had a purpose in life and it
was the liberation of his Motherland from the foreign yoke.
He mused on it by day, dreamt about it by night, and he was
waiting for an opportunity to throw himself into his life’.s
mission with all the strength of his mind and muscle.
Shakespeare has described such a poAverful mind in these
beautiful lines :

“ The force of his own merit makes his way,

A gift that heaven gives for him.”

With that end in view Vinayak made friends with Mhaskar
and Page, new friends of Babarao, at Nasik. Simple, hard-
working, credulous, Babarao was as great an obliging man
as he was a propagandist. Babarao’s selfless service won the
goodwill and affection of many persons and families. Among
the new additions were Mhaskar and Page. Sober and
sincere, they were both patriotic workers in the background
as are most men in Government service. In action they were
TUakites and in thought they were drawn to the revolutionary
ideas of Shivrampant Paranjpe. The political views of
Paranjpe were the burning thoughts of the boy Savarkar.
Paranjpe and Savarkar were politically parallel, but socially
poles apart. Both were orators. The elder orator was a
master of satire, the younger w'as a live volcano. While

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 9

Paranjpe was the dream of revolution, Savarkar was its
living reality.

After img debates and varied discussions Vinayak won
Paranjpe’s followers over to his side, administered to them
the vow, and formed a Patriots’ Group of three members.
This Group, established in 1899, soon assumed the shape of a
Friends’ Union called ‘ Mitra Mela ’ at the beginning of 1900.
Chosen youths of merit and mettle were secretly initiated into
this fold. This was the famous ‘ Beehive in the words of
Sir Valentine Chirol, of revolutionaries in Western India !
The Mitra Mela sprouted into the world-famous Abhinava
Bharat in 1904, its network was spread over Western and
Central India and subsequently its branches in the form of
the Ghadr Party resounded in England, France, Germany,
America, Hong-Kong, Singapore and Burma with their heroic
deeds and risings like the Komagata Maru episode. The aim
and ideal of the Mitra Mela was absolute political Indepen-
dence of India, and it emphatically asserted that such an
independence could be won, if need be, by an armed revolt.
Its watchward was instruction and insurrection.

The organisation started. By diffusing knowledge, dispel-
ling doubts and ignorance of the members and inspiring them
with the noble aim, its young leader Vinayak Savarkar vita-
lised the gilded youths and the intellectual vagabonds, and
brought the best out of them. He gave them aim, form,
means and ways. Those innocent and reckless youths were
converted into a batch of patriots and a galaxy of martsn-s
who afterwards made history.

The new patriotic and political atmosphere transformed the
city into a living force of a political volcano. The Mitra Mela
dominated all public and political institutions of Nasik,
changed religious fimctions and festivals into political and
national celebrations. These activities of the Mitra Mela gave
sleepless nights to the District authorities. The Mitra Mela
re-sanctified and revitalised the life of Nasik which had grown
stale, insipid and hapless.

Nasik has played a very important role in India’s ancient
and modem history. This southern Kashi stands on the bank
of the Godavari and is the place where Sri Ramchandra
passed his voluntary exile resulting from his eternal devotion

10 SAVARKAR ANO HIS TIMES

to his father. It was from Nasik that Sri Ramchandra started
on his great march to annihilate the tyranny of Ravan. It
was here that Ramchandra and Laxman cut the Nasika —
nose — of the demoness Shiupanakha. Strange to say,
Savarkar started his war of Independence for the liberation
of his people in Nasik, cut off the nose of the British
Imperialism and was later on exiled for his deathless devotion
to his Fatherland, changing Nasik into the new Jerusalem of
Revolutionary India.

During the weekly meetings of the Mitra Mela sometimes
there were hot and lively discussions. On the eve of the
accession of King Edward VII in 1901, a debate was held
to consider whether they should hold a condolence meeting
for the death of Queen Victoria and to declare allegiance to
King Edward or not. Mhaskar and Page were in favour of
declaring allegiance in order to allay the suspicions of the
Government. There was a battle royal. Savarkar asked :
“ King or Queen, the question is whose king is he. England’s
Queen or King is the Queen or King of our enemies. To
declare allegiance to such a King or Queen is not allegiance.
It will be the Bible of slavery ! ” Ultimately it was decided
to oppose both the moves. While Vinayak was at Kothur,
a speaker at one meeting extolled King Edward VTI as ‘ our
father ’. Within an hour of this meeting posters appeared in
the village from novrhere and bitingly queried : “ Then what
relation does your father beeir to your mother ? ”

Vinayak’s charming personality, his voracious reading, his
trenchant views and inspiring thoughts electrified his col-
leagues. They devotedly took to heart the teachings and
preachings of the leader. The precepts were thenceforth no
more abstract ideas. They were an everyday guidance and
moving force in the daily life of Nasik. Vinayak created in
his followers a liking for reading, debating and physical train-
ing to make worthy and noble sacrifices, if need should arise.
He himself took physical exercise — Namaskars — ^till the pers-
piration from his body left his mark on the ground. In later
life, however, he opined that moderate exercise consolidates
and strengthens the body.

Members of the Mitra Mela served the city in many
useful ways. They chastised the tyrannical elements and

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 11

brow-beat the bully. Those were the days occasionally smitten
with terrible plague that reduced families to ashes, and razed
houses to the ground. It was a dreadful sight. The cries of
the dying men, women and children, the groans of the afSicted
and the wailings of their relations were too shocking for these
budding youths. There was paucity of men to carry the
corpses to the cremation ground. This band of youths carried
the dead all day long. Vinayak also shared the toilsome task.
One night thoroughly fagged out, young Vinayak fell asleep
in the cemetery unnoticed and was left behind.

Anolher prominent cast of Vinayak Savarkar’s leadership
was that he knew no caste distinctions. To him all Hindus
were equal. Those of his countrymen who were prepared to
sacrifice their lives on the altar of freedom were his comrades.
He shared his food with Maratha families and broke his bread
under their roof. His attractive figure and engaging manners
inspired respect and individual devotion in his circle. He
was popular but by nature reserved and rather shy. He was
amongst them but not of them and so he sometimes retired
secretly to some sequestered corner to hold, as he put it, “ the
Parliament of his mind ” ! His dress consisted of a dhoti, a
coat, a jacket and a cap with a line of embroidery in the
middle.

The heart of Vinayak’s poems and patriotism in those days
was the resurrection and liberation of Hindusthan. In one of
his poems composed at this stage of his life he says : “ O
Aryan brothers, arise.” Elsewhere he says : “ For the uplift
of Aryan Race and Aryan Land, better to keep it in one unit
grand.” At another place he observes : “ Follow the laws of
Nature. Little drops of water make the pond. Organise all
Hindus and unify them.” These lines are the best interpreters
of his thoughts as the words ‘ Arya ’ or ‘ Hindu ’ and ‘ One
Unit ’ are the rallying-points of his ideology.

The influence the Mitra Mela exercised upon the poetry and
politics of Maharashtra was of great magnitude. With a little
hyperbole it may be said that the Mitra Mela was a Univer-
sity. Its songs of freedom and its tales of the lives of the
makers of world history inspired the students with a great
vision, and infused vitality in their bones. Choirs were formed.
They fed and fanned the flames of the passions of the people

12 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

with revolutionary ideas. It was a group of these singers
from Nasik that sang a ballad later on at the historic Fort
Raigad in the presence of Tilak, making the Father of Indian
Unrest quite restless.

Poets, speakers, propagandists, patriots and martyrs were
produced by the Mitra Mela in scores. Out of such lumi-
naries came the poet Govind Trimbak Darekar of Maha-
rashtra. A Maratha by caste, his popular name was Aba.
He was lame. The young poet was richly gifted, but was
unlettered and therefore unacquainted with the rules of com-
position. Savarkar tutored him and Aba Darekar became
Poet Govind, the famous revolutionary poet of Maharashtra.
If Savarkar ’s Ganges and Govind ’s Godavari were taken away
from the sea of Maharashtrian Poetry, what Marathi Poetry
would remain on Patriotism and Martyrdom ?

It is remarkable to note that though mostly engaged in the
propagation of his ideals, Savarkar never had a failure in
his school career. As a rule his colleagues and he were very
particular about their success in examinations. Nor were
they ever a whit behind their class. But to Savarkar life
being an oblation, he, like Tilak, cai'ed more for the service
of his Motherland than for academic distinctions. Yet his
preparations were extraordinary. The prodigy that he was,
his head was a storehouse of world history, an encyclopaedia
of political and social revolutions and revolutionary figures.
Few professors, even at fifty, could rival the sweep, breadth
and depth of his vast knowledge. He had mastered the poets
Ramdas, Moropant and Mukteshwar and proficiently com-
pared and contrasted them in literary circles. One of the
articles entitled, ‘ Who was the Greatest Peshwa ’, written for
a competition carried away the prize. It may be mentioned
here that this was recently prescribed by the Bombay Univer-
sity for the Matriculation Examination. Savarkar has brought
out in this article the brilliance and great leadership of the
Peshwa Madhavrao I. Thus, before entering the Fergusson
College, Poona, young Savarkar was a first rate debater, a
powerful orator, a rising writer and a leader of a revolu-
tionary organisation which was creeping over all villages and
towns in the District.

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH f3

A few months before Savarkar’s Matriculation Examina-
tion, there occurred an important event in his life. Savarkar
was married to the eldest daughter of Sri Trimbak Ram-
chandra Chiplunkar alias Bhaurao, who knew Savarkar from
childhood. Noble and kind-hearted, Bhaurao was a tall and
attractive figure. He loved riding and hunting. Being a
Karhhari in the Jawahar State lie wielded much influence
in the State. The most important pail the marriage played
in Savarkar’s life was fhat it solved the problem of his
University education which had absorbed the attention of
Babarao Savarkar for the previous five or six months. For
Babarao was to Vinayak, what Baliram was to Krishna or
Chimaji to Bajirao I.

After the premature death of their mother and untimely
death of their father, the burden of the family fell upon
Babarao’s shoulders. He had to struggle valiantly to keep
the wolf from the door and to drive the household chariot
along the right path of revolution. That showed his mettle
and unbounded attachment to his brothers for whom he
sacrificed his personal ambition. To tell the truth, Babarao
would have been a great yogin had he not subordinated his
future to that of his younger brother. Even as a boy, Babarao
believed fervently that his younger brother was born with a
mission for liberating his Motherland, that his uncommon
genius and his great faith would bring about a political revo-
lution in Hindusthan and that he would win back her lost
freedom. This belief revolutionised his whole being. The
family was in straightened circumstances and disturbed con-
ditions owing to a theft committed in their house. Still
Babarao vowed before his ailing and anxious “ Tatya ” that,
come what might, he would send him to the University. On
his part Vinayak passed the Public Service Examination and
was ready to enter Government service, if need arose. But
Sri Bhaurao Chiplunkar promised help, fulfilled the promise
and relieved Babarao of his anxiety. Savarkar’s regard for
his generous father-in-law approached reverence. Years
after, through the airhole of the dark cell in the Andamans,
he sighed his grateful tributes to Bhaurao Chiplunkar in these

14"^ SAVABKAR AND HIS TXMBS

words : " If there be any man or any family next to dear
Baba to whom I owe all that is best in me and owing to whose
noble patronage and winning solicitude I had imusual chances
and facilities of assimilating the noblest things of this world
and even of doing something for our common Motherland,
then that man and that family is theirs (Chiplunkars’) •”

CHAPTER II

The Rising Leader

1

Savarkar passed his Mati’iculation Examinatiou in Decem-
ber 1901, and left Nasik for Poona in January 1902. What
was the state of Poona ? Exactly a year before Poona had
lost Mahadeo Govind Ranade, India’s foremost torchbearer
of learning and light. Ranade was a great social reformer,
a towering scholar, an ardent patriot, a renowned thinker,
an eminent economist and an exemplary judge. He was the
foremost torchbearer of a new age, and wished to build a
social structure conforming to the demands of fresh ideas.
Though not strictly a Congressman his word was law in every
annual session of the Indian National Congress of his day.
His political ideal for India was, in his own words : “ A
federated India distributed according to nationahties and
subjected to a common bond of connection with the Imperial
Power of the Queen-Empress of India.” * Sri R. P. Paranjpe
had just returned from England with a dazzling success in his
academic career. Gokhale was about to leave the Fergusson
College and enter upon a political career. Tilak was becom-
ing a formidable leader. Shivrampant Paranjpe was a domi-
nating figure with his magic pen and marvellous oratory.

As to the political state of India, the Congress was the
spokesman. From its inception upto 1906 the Moderates
dominated the Congress. Its stalwarts, from Surendranath
Banerjee to Pherozeshah Mehta and Gokhale, believed with
Ranade in the inscrutable “ dispensation of Almighty God for
the unification of our peoples and the permanence of British
Rule in India.” *

Savarkar joined the Fergusson College, Poona, in January
1902. Poona was then the living heart, and the Fergusson
College, the Harrow of Maharashtra, in traditions and in
producing historic personalities. As soon as Savarkar was in

1 Ganesh & Co., Publishers, Madras, The Indian Nation Builders, p. 8.

ajbid., p. 74.

16 fSAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

the College, he directed his attention to sowing the seeds of
revolutionary doctrines in the fountain-head of Maharashtra.
On the eve of his departure for Poona in a send-off at Nasik
he had expressed the hope that at Poona he would inspire the
pick of Maharashtrian youth with revolutionary thoughts and
spread the revolutionary tenets through them over all the
Districts of Maharashtra.

A youth of power and purpose, Savarkar could easily make
his mark in the college. His fellow-students could not but feel
the impact of his striking personality. His qualities of head
and heart were great. He had entered Poona with a .stock of
reading, a gift for waiting, and a genius for oratoi-y such as
few students of this century possess. He was much advanced
in classical, historical and political literature. Even the profes-
sors who turned up their noses at his extreme political vie\vs
could not help praising him. As a member of the college
residency it was convenient for him to gauge his fellow-
students and gain their confidence. Soon a Savarkar group
was formed. This band of purposeful youths captured almost
all departments of the college institutions from the Dining
Club to the Library. It was a patriots’ group, studious,
thoughtful, sober, aspiring and yet greatly obliging.

The group started a hand-written weekly named the Aryan
Weekly, in which Savarkar often VTote illuminating articles
on patriotism, literature, history and science with ease and
elegance. Some of the thought-provoking articles from this
weekly found their way even into local weeklies and news-
papers of Poona. One of those brilliant articles of Savarkar was
“ Saptapadi ” in which he had dealt with the seven stages of
evolution that have to be gone through by a subject nation.
He had studied all the dramas of Kalidas and Bhavabhuti and
in one essay he brilliantly compared and contrasted Kalida.s
with Bhavabhuti with remarkable originality. His professor
highly praised him for this illuminating essay. Of the English
poets, Scott, Shakespeare and Milton influenced him much.
Milton’s Paradise Lost almost fascinated him. He had learnt
by heart some of its cantos. Later on, he used blank verse
metre for a part of his epic poetry. His essay on the Ramayana
and the Iliad similarly evoked appreciative remarks for his
erudition from Prof. Patwardhan.

THE RISING LEADER 17

Savarkar often gave scholarly talks on the history of the
world, the revolutions in Italy, Netherlands, America and
gave his colleagues an idea of the stress and struggle those
countries had to undergo for winning back their lost freedom.
The young Demosthenes in Savarkar had captivated students
and professors. On important occasions and at the main func-
tions in the college all flocked to hear his stirring speeches.
One day he delivered a lecture on the history of Italy under
the chairmanship of Principal Raj wade. He was mightily
pleased with Savarkar s range of knowledge and his oratorical
gifts although he disliked Savarkar’s reference to modern
politics. In an article the late Sri Gopal Govind Mujumdar,
alias ‘Poet Sadhudas’, has very well described Savarkar’s
hold on the college environments. In 1903, at the opening of
the new session of the college a meeting was held in the
college hall. Prof. Bhanu w£is in the chair. After the
introductory speech of Prof. Bhate, Savarkar in his black
coat and black cap rose amidst a deafening applause. He
reminded his audience of the glorious past and his speech
bewailed the loss of freedom. A wave of emotion swept over
the audience. His speech infused courage into the craven-
hearted and fired them all with the spirit of patriotism moving
every one to tears. Then the chairman rose and with a grave
face threw a wet blanket over the excited feelings. He said :
“ Yoimg men, you need not take Savarkar seriously ! He is
a Devil ! ” In those days a fearless, patriotic and brilliant
youth of independent nature was described in this manner.
In his college days Tilak, too, was known as a Devil ^ and the
Blunt ! Poor Prof. Bhanu ! His bookish knowledge could
not distinguish a deliverer from a devil.

The Savarkar Group dressed alike, used swadeshi, took an
evening stroll together, and carried discussions in old temples
and in the hearts of hills about their problems and plans. At the
same time the group never failed to attend to the prescribed
course of studies. They took care of their moral, physical and
intellectual developments. Out of the armoury of this group
sprang a host of literary and political figures who served the
cause of Indian freedom. They believed in energy and
endurance and not in enjoyment. Their ideal of life was not
J A. W. Marathe, Lokamanya Tilak (Marathi), p. 12.

2

18 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

cricket Their goal was survival of the fittest ! Yet Savarkar
was not without his lighter moments and at times enjoyed
them fully. He played an important part in a Shakespearian
play staged by the Fergussonians.

In the public activities of Poona also Savarkar took a
prominent part. His relations with Shivrampant Paranjpe,
the most popular orator and brilliant editor of the Kal, were
of a very cordial nature. While a high school student he was
occasionally in correspondence with Paranjpe. Once student
Savarkar had expressed his desire for being given a job of a
sub-editor, or even that of a compositor in the office of the
Kal just to enable him to have university education. But the
proposal, it seems, was dropped partly for want of an
encouraging reply or owing to the promised help by Savar-
kar's father-in-law. Savarkar first saw Paranjpe in Poona in
1902. Paranjpe’s revolutionary ideas were neai'er to the aim
of Savarkar. Although the mould of their fervid patriotism
was the same, it stemmed from different souls. Savarkar’s
thoughts were deep-rooted, unbending and powerful and had
a broader base and a wider range than those of Paranjpe.

On important occasions young Savarkar saw Tilak whose
association with the revolutionaries was a legend. Tilak 's
superb insight had sensed the stuff of which Savarkar was
made. Savarkar, by this time, was an acknowledged leader
of youths.

n

A change in the political tone was coming on with the
growing tension. A new spirit of self-reliance began to gain
ground. Tilak was turning the eyes of India from the British
public to the Indian masses for her own salvation. Stimulated
by these feelings Lala Lajpat Rai appealed to Indians to
become arbiters of their own destiny. Inspired by the epoch-
making victory of Asiatic Japan over European Russia,
Surendranath Banerjee encouraged the people with these
words : “ The sun has risen in the East. Japan has saluted
the rising sun. That sun, in its meridian splendovtr, will pass
through our country.” ^ Gokhale characterised the partition

^ Ganesh & Co., Publishers, The Indian Nation Builders, p. 93.

THE RISING LEADEB 19

of Bengal as a cruel wrong inflicted upon our Bengali
brethren. The love of country and the feeling of united India
was rising. Simultaneously, the Swadeshi movement was also
gaining ground.

The opposition to the partition of Bengal was coming to a
head by October 1905. The partition of Bengal awakened the
dormant forces of nationalism and the sleeping embers of
communalism. As it was a move to counter the politically
dominant Hindus by a creation of an Eastern Bengal, Hindus
opposed and Muslims supported it ! Strangely enough, the
fate of Bengal has indeed not been a covetable one throughout
the last two centuries. Bengal was the stronghold of the
Mogul Empire. Bengal was the keystone of the arch of the
British Empire. Bengal has been the grazing ground for con-
versions and communal riots. Bengal has recently been the
foxmdation of a Muslim Sovereign State !

By now Savarkar had developed into a prominent figure in
the political and social gatherings and meetings of Poona and
had won the heai’ts of the public of Poona. Acharya Kaka
Kalelkar ^ tells us that Savarkar’s stirring eloquence was a
great attraction to the public of Poona in those days. Savarkar
and his group were ardent promoters of Swadeshi and staimch
opponents of the pai'tition scheme. Tilak had made the par-
tition of Bengal an all-India issue. Savarkar resolved to unfurl
the banner of boycott of foreign goods ; for boycott and
Swadeshi were the obverse and the reverse of one and the
same coin ! Representing the student at one meeting he,
therefore, suggested that they should make a bonfire of
foreign clothes. Sri N. C. Kelkar was in the chair. Shivram-
pant Paranjpe who was also present at the meeting supported
Savarkar. Savarkar also saw Tilak who was out of Poona
on the day of the meeting. Tilak, too, agreed, but on one con-
dition. He insisted that at least the heap of clothes should be
a huge one. Savarkar readily took the task upon himself.
With his moving oratory he provoked the people to the deed
and with a cartful of clothes the procession started wending
its way along the Reay Market and proceeded to the open
fldid across the Lakdi Pool. Tilak joined it at the termination.
At the conclusion of the procession Tilak opined that the
1 Kaka Kalelkar, The Pratihha, dated 15-1-1936.

20 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

dothes should be burnt there and speeches should be made
somewhere else. But Savarkar reasoned, “Then why this
procession ? We could have sent clothes here and made
speeches at the Reay Market. In fact, glowing speeches should
be delivered before the burning heap ! That will have a deep
impression on the minds of the people,” he argued. Tilak
cared m^re for youthful vigour and so he agreed. The
meeting then commenced around the glowing heap. Tilak
thimdered ; Paranjpe opened the vials of his satire and his
speech became more scorching than the fire itself. As ordained
by Tilak the youths left tlie place after the fire was completely
extinguished. Later on when N. C. Kelkar remarked that
economically the bonfire was a waste, Savarkar gently
retorted that the spark it would light would be mentally and
morally more valuable and lasting.

Thus Poona had the first bonfire of foreign cloth in India I
Its flames whirled high up in the sky and the noise echoed
throughout the length and breadth of India. Hatred of British
domination was rising and Savarkar added fuel to the fire of
hatred. In his later life Kelkar often mentioned that the
speeches made in those days by Savarkar left an indelible
imprint on his memory for a good many years. Even the
police reporters were enamoured of his gift of the gab.
Describing Savarkar ’s speech at the Sarvajanik Sabha in
Poona one reporter says : “ It was so dexterous ! so tri-
umphant ! He is at the most twenty-two, but he is already an
accomplished orator of an enviable rank.”

The flames of the bonfire also scorched the heads of the
Fergusson College. These fearless views and deeds of
Savarkar were fiery enough to burn their relations with the
Bombay University. The leading part played by this fiery
youth in the bonfire affair turned their moderate heads, and
R. P. Paranjpe, the then Principal, fined Savarkar Rs. 10 and
expelled him from the college residency. Two crosses now
glorified Savarkar’s lion-like chest. He was the first Indian
leader to make a bonfire of foreign cloth in India and the first
Indian student who was rusticated from a Government-aided
institution. The reaction was wide and virulent. Tilak de-
nounced this action on the part of the college authorities and
declared ; “ They are not our Gurus.” Almost all patriotic

THE RISING LEADER 21

papers condemned this unwise step taken by the college
authorities. A wave of indignation passed all over Maha-
rashtra. Sympathy and money poured in. Savarkar paid
the fine from the fund and donated the balance towards the
Industrial Fimd known as the Paisa Fund.

In one respect this incident is significant, for it marked the
fight between two coming ideologies which continued in
Indian politics for years to come. Gandhiji from South Africa
criticised the bonfire, as, even for twenty years thereafter, he
hugged the belief that boycott movement had its roots in
hatred and violence. And Gandhiji was not far away from
his Guru in this opinion. Gokhale said in his Presidential
Address at the Benares Congress in 1905 : “ It is well to
remember that the term ‘ boycott ’, owing to its origin, has
got unsavoury associations, and it conveys to the mind before
everything else a vindictive desire to injure another. Such
a desire on our part, as a normal feature of our relations with
England, is of course out of the question.”

The Moderates tried, but failed in winning over Savarkar to
their side. Savarkar had great regard for Gokhale’s great
talents and profound patriotism, but he differed from him
fundamentally and temperamentally as well. The feelings
and opinions of the professors, who were mostly Moderates,
about Savarkar were mingled with awe and aversion. For
their part they respected his intellectual powers, admired his
fervid oratory, but detested his revolutionary views. One of
them, Prof. Patwardhan, foretold that Savarkar was bound to
be a great demagogue. Time has its revenge. Thirty-eight
years later presiding over the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of
his disciple Savarkar, Sir R. P. Paranjpe said with pride :
“ In his younger days as I knew him, Savarkar was marked
by a keen intellect, fervid eloquence, great fluency in writing
and magnetic personality. I remember his patriotism was
intense, but as is natural to young men, it was based entirely
on strong emotions not much regulated by cold reason.”

Paranjpe is only a great mathematician statesman. And
an extraordinary personality like Savarkar lies beyond the
pale of the general enunciation of his theorem as put in the
last line of his speech. Indeed if there is any great revolu-
tionary leader worth the name in the history of revolutions

22 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

whose emotions are regulated by cool reason, it is Savarkar.
This can be proved by citing occasions on which he bridled
the emotions and thoughtless daring plans of his lieutenants.
Moreover, if you are to be a leader of action or revolution,
you must raise your reason to a certain pitch of emotion.
Otherwise your reason will forget that you have to lead, leap
and lift and will rust !

While these turbulent and tumultuous days were rolling
by, Savarkar’s B.A. Examination was fast approaching. As
was always customary with him, he studied day and night at
the fag end of the year, made up all the studies in the last two
months, appeared for the examination and to the joy and jubi-
lations of the public came out successful. Congratulations
from all parts of Maharashtra were showered upon him. It
was not his personal triumph only. It was also the success
of the youth movement and the advancing tide of nationalism.

In the meanwhile Savarkar the prolific writer was coming
to the front. His famous ballads on Tanaji and Baji Prabhu,
the heroes of the Maratha history, were penned during this
period. The ballads were proscribed, but they attained the
popularity of folk songs in Maharashtra during the last four
decades until at last they were restored in Free India. His
lyric of patriotism, his inspiring songs of heroes, his ballads
and hymns thrilled clubs and kitchens, schools and choruses
and meetings, and he was hailed as a bard of Freedom or a
rebel poet. His famous poem on Widowhood of Hindu ladies
dealt severely with unjust customs and cruel traditions, and
brought out a very touching picture of the child widow,
attacking the brutal desires of old bridegrooms.

The charm of the poem was so irresistible that even men
like Kaka Kalelkar remember it today. In this poem one
finds the seeds of the great social reformer in Savarkar. The
poem won the prize in the competition for which it was meant,
the other rival sharing half the prize. “ What is everlasting
in this world ? ” Savarkar asks in another poem. He sings ;

“ The sun sets, the sea ebbs. All things rise and fall.’* In
this Savarkar hinted at the sure downfall of the British
Empire. That there is an end to everything is an eternal
truth.

During the same period Savarkar wrote many memorable

THE RISING LEADER

23

articles and brilliant essays. Among the important essays
ranks, “ Why should we celebrate the festival of historic
personalities ? ” This was a prize article. In this thought-
provoking and brilliant essay one is impressed by his pro-
found thinking, the historical deductions he has arrived at,
and the sweep of his originality. He concludes his essay in
a grand peroration : “ Why, then, should the historical func-
tions be celebrated ? To pay our national gratitude we owe
to those heroic souls. They should be celebrated as a mark
of reverence and remembrance of the immense good those
benevolent men have done to the world, because they have
sacred sanction of ancient traditions. They are the clouds
which shower the nectar of instruction. They are the monu-
ments of virtues. They are the chemicals that act as an incen-
tive to human thoughts and feelings. They are the preceptors
who impart virtuous instruction to the youths. They are the
living history of the deeds of noble heroes. Functions in their
honour should be celebrated because of this. There are so
many advantages and definitely no disadvantages. Especially
we, Hindus, should take to these functions for emerging out of
the present degraded state which was the result of want of
self-respect and dutifulness. For, that is the only easy and
sure path to the prosperity of the nation.”

Savarkar wrote brilliant prose. His imagination soared high
up in the sky on the wings of an eagle. It aspired to emulate
the loftiness of the Himalayas. It visualised “ the Himalayas
towering above the roof of the world to see whether there was
any other country under the sun as captivating as Hindu-
sthein. Elated at not finding on earth an equal of Hindusthan,
he opened the apartments of the heavens. But there, O Aryan
Land, instead of finding your equal, he found something else.
Enamoured of the snow-clad peaks of the Himcdayas, the
nymphs and the virgin attendants of the Gods clung to his
neck and deserting the capital of Indra, they lived with him.”
“ The diamonds and jewels,” proceeds Savarkar, “ O, Aryan
Mother, you have preserved for us in the mines can easily
crowd to overflowing a ship made of this vast world.”

One thing more and of tremendous significance. In 1902
Savarkar had written in the Kal one essay which he concluded
with a prophetic vision. He stated therein : “ Hindus are

24 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

responsible for the poverty and disorderliness of Hindusthan.
But if they ever desire to attain prosperity, they must remain
as Hindus.” This deep-rooted, farsighted and fundamentally
original characteristic of Savarkar’s outlook differentiated him
from Tilak and Shivrampant Paranjpe.

in

Savarkar’s secret organisational work had not stopped
during those days. While at college he had convened in 1904
a meeting of some two hundred selected members of the
Mitra Mela. In an atmosphere fUled with grandeur and
religiosity, the name of the Revolutionary Party was changed
from the Mitra Mela to the Abhinava Bharat. Now the paiiy
girded up its loins to extend its political and revolutionary
activities and influence, spread its net all over India, and
assume the responsibility of a revolution on an all-Bharat
scale.

After passing his B.A. in December 1905, Savarkar went
to Bombay to study law. He had already passed his first
LL.B. in 1904, in Poona. In Bombay he organised youths
from different colleges. He had also propaganda meetings in
chawls. Sri Bal Gangadhar Kher, who later became the first
Premier of Bombay under the 1935 Government of India Act,
was one of those youths who came under the influence of the
leader of the Abhinava Bharat. Kher was an initiate of the
Abhinava Bharat. It was in Poona that Sri J. B. Kripalani,
an ex-President of the Indian National Congress, was initiated
into the Abhinava Bharat while he was a student in the Dec-
can College. Hundreds of youths now joined the organisation.

While in Bombay Savarkar contributed to the Vihari, a
local Marathi Weekly and made it the mouth-piece of the
Abhinava Bharat. Its circulation grew by leaps and bounds,
like its fiery sister weekly, the Yugantar of Bengal. Savarkar
was now the acclaimed leader of the revolutionary movement
which had spread almost all over Maharashtra. So he was
invited to deliver speeches at public meetings, festivals and
functions in Maharashtra. A brilliant young man with a black
cap, short-collared coat, square jaws, presentable forehead,
prominent cheek-bones, leader Savarkar was an energetic and

THE RISING LEADER 25

magnetic figure. The propaganda and popularity of the
revolutionary leader rose rapidly and his arrest seemed
inevitable. Rumours about his arrest were afloat in Nasik,
Poona and Bombay, but they proved to be false.

During his stay in Bombay Savarkar was one day called by
the students of Poona to interview a person named Agamya
Guru. Savai’kar went to Poona for the purpose. But in a
few minutes the interview terminated. The Agamya Guru
was as abstruse as his name. But more ridiculous was the
invention of the C.I.D. that traced Savarkar ’s inborn spring of
inspiration to the recluse. Poor creatures ! they knew not
that mathematics and mahatmatics never go together !

About this time news came to India that Pandit Shyamji
Krishna Varnia, then resident of London, offered scholarships
for Indian students desiring to study in Europe. Savarkar
revolved the idea in his mind. The scholarship being
insufficient he first approached his father-in-law in the matter.
He made sure of some help from him and applied for one of
the scholarshif'S with recommendations of Tilak and Shivram-
pant Paranjpe. Giving a brief sketch of his career Savarkar
proceeds in his application : “ Independence and Liberty I
look upon as the very pulse and breath of nation. From my
boyhood, dear sir, uptc» this moment of my youth, the loss of
Independence of my country- and the possibility of regaining
it form the only theme of which I dreamt by night and on
which I mused by day.” Tilak’s recommendation runs as
follows. ” When there is such a rush like that, it is no use
recommending any one particularly to your notice. But, still,
I may state, among the applicants there is one Mr. Savarkar
from Bombay, who graduated last year and whom I know to
be a spirited young man very enthusiastic in the swadeshi
cause so much so that he had to incur the displeasure of the
Fergusson College authorities. He has no mind to take up
Government service at any time and his moral character is
very good.” Pandit Shyamji Krishna Vai’ma agreed. Signing
an agreement before Tilak, Savarkar received a sum of Rs. 400
through him as the first instalment of the Shivaji Scholarship
which Pandit Varma awarded to him. Shivaji and Savarkar
were thus grouped together by Shyamji.

26 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Savarkar made preparations for the voyage. On the eve of
his departure for liondon he was given a send-off at a big
public meeting in Nasik. He bade farewell to his wife and his
son named Prabhakar. Amidst an atmosphere filled with
various dreams of Savarkar’s futvure greatness his relations,
his comrades and devotees gave him in Bombay a hearty send-
off on June 9, 1906, and the steamer Persia, left Bombay on
her great voyage with the prince of Indian Revolutionaries on
her deck for the consummation of his great vision, great aim
and great deeds.

CHAPTER III

Revolutionary Activities in Europe

I

The year 1906 was a landmark in Indian politics. During
this year Savarkar, the leader of the Abhinava Bharat, went
to London. That year saw the birth of the Muslim League at
Dacca. The formation of Barindranath’s revolutionai'y party
at Maniktola, a suburb of Calcutta, and the foundation of the
revolutionary institution, the Anushilan Samiti, took place
during the same year.

With a band of a few hundred youths at his command in
Maharashtra, Savarkar left India. Maharashtra was too small
a field for the young lion and the lion went in search of lions.
During those days revolutionaries from Russia, Ireland, Egypt
and China occasionally took shelter in London. Under the
garb of a law student, Savarkar also was going to enter the
gates of the Empire capital. His main object was to have a
look at the den of the British lion, to learn how to organize
a revolution and carry on the struggle for the liberation of
Hindusthan by inculcating tenets of revolution into the
brilliant brains of the cream of the Indian students, who went
abroad either for academic careers or for qualifying them-
selves for the civil service. The young orator of Maharashtra
was now to be in London, the largest debating society under
the sun.

On board the ship Persia Savarkar happened to come across
a youth named Harnam Singh who became since then a
devoted follower of Savarkar. Harnam Singh was homesick.
He was about to give up his journey to England. But Savarkar
persuaded him easily. He pointed out to him how the
adventurous and ambitious British, French and Portuguese
youths served in foreign lands for the glory and welfare of
their Motherland and how his Motherland suffered for want
of daring sons. He further said to Harnam Singh : “ Dear is
one’s own mother, but dearer, by far, is and ought to be our

28 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Motherland, the Mother of mothers of our race.”^ And
Hamam Singh went to London.

Savarkar reached London in the first week of July 1906,
and took his lodgings at the India House founded by Pandit
Shyamji Krishna Varma. In due covu*se Savarkar was
admitted to Gray’s Inn, one of the four Iims of Court in
London, Pandit Shyamji, who had awarded the Shivaji
scholarship to Savarkar, had established a Home Rule Society
and the India House during the first quarter of 1905. A
sterling patriot and a noted social reformer. Pandit Shyamji
was highly respected as an incomparable authority on Sanskrit
Works by eminent scholars like Prof. Max Muller and Prof.
Monier Williams. Born on October 4, 1857, he came of a poor
family by name Bhansali. He studied upto the Matriculation
class in the Elphinstone High School, Bombay. During his
school days he went on a lecturing tour on behalf of the Arya
Samaj as the right-hand man of Swami Dayananda. He
married the daughter of Seth Chhabildas Lallubhai and
through the influence of Prof. Monier Williams proceeded to
London in March 1879, took his B.A. at Cambridge and was
called to the bar. There he read his essay on ‘ The Origin of
Writing in India ’ in the Royal Asiatic Society of London and
was elected its member. In 1881 he was sent by the Secretary
of State for India to represent India at the Berlin Congress
of Orientalists. On his return to India he successfully served
three Indian States, Ratlam, Udaipur and Junagad either in
the capacity of a Divan, or a Member of the Council. Dtu-ing
his term of office at Junagad he went out of his way to oblige
one European officer named Maconochie, who, with the aid of
Divan, ultimately sacked the Pandit himself. This one-time
disciple of Swami Dayananda was greatly influenced by Tilak
also. After the arrest of Tilak he permanently left India for
London. There he studied Herbert Spencer and was deeply
influenced by his philosophy, so much so that he announced
at the latter’s fvmeral on December 4, 1903, a donation of
£1,000 for establishing a Lectureship in the name of his
English Guru in the University of Oxford.

Through the columns of his Indian Sociologist Pandit
Shyamji started agitation for Home Rule for India. Observing

^ Chitra Gupta, Lije of Barrister Savarkar, p. 35.

revolutionary activities in EUROPE 29

Savarkar’s whole-hearted devotion to the cause of freedom,
burning mission and phenomenal energy, he developed a
paternal affection for Savarkar. He went over to the
Abhinava Bharat, and was initiated into its fold. In 1907 he
entrusted the management of the India House entirely to
Savarkar and left for Paris. Few have spent so much,
struggled so hard, and donated so abundantly towards the
freedom movement of India as Pandit Shyamji, the great
patriot, did in those early days of difficulties, dangers and
despair of Indian Freedom Movement. He was a lover of
Spencer’s dictum that ‘ re.sistance to aggression is not simply
justifiable but imperative What was most striking, he had
ruthlessly denounced Gandhiji for helping the British against
the Boers who fought for their liberation.

It is worth mentioning what the Muslim students thought
of this India House. Mr. Ziauddin Ahmed, then in Germany,
warned Mr. Abdulla Sulmawardy in these clear words : “ You
know that we have a definite political policy at Aligarh, i.e.
the policy of Sir Syed ... I understand that Mr. Krishna
Varma has founded a society called ‘ Indian Home Rule
Society ’ and you are also one of its vice-presidents. Do you
really believe that the Mohammedans will be profited if Home
Rule be granted to India ? . . . There is no doubt that this
Home Rule is decidedly against the Aligarh policy. . . . What
I call the Aligarh policy is really the policy of all the
Mohammedans generally — of the Mohammedans of Upper
India particularly.” ^ Mr. Asaf Ali wrote to Pandit Shyamji
in September 1909 : “ I am staying with some Muslim friends
who do not like me to associate with nationalists ; and, to save
many unpleasant consequences, I do not want to irritate them
unnecessarily.” - Thus the Muslim antagonism to the Freedom
Movement of India dates back to its beginning itself.

n

As soon as Savarkar established himself, he started the
“ Free India Society It was a recruiting institution of the
Abhinava Bharat and worked openly. Savarkar organised
Indian students and transformed majority of them into patriots

1 S. L Karandikar, Savarkar-Charitra, pp. 132-33.

“ Ibid., p. 133.

30 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMSS

and martyrs. His magnetic personality brought Bhai Parma-
nanda, then a well-known leader of light and learning, into the
revolutionary movement. He attracted Lala Hardayal. A
staimch Hindu, Hardayal had an instinctive disbelief in, and
hatred for, the Muslims. He was a man of strong emotions and
great vision, and wielded a mighty pen. Savarkar’s another
colleague was Vireiidianath Chattopadhyaya, brother of the
late Mrs. Sarojini Naidu. He was a student at the Middle
Temple Inn and was expelled during Savarkar’s slonny days
in London. A great bi'ain and a brilliant journalist, he died
mysteriously an exile in tiie custody of Stalin’s Russia during
World War II. Sri V. V. S. Aiyer, a lawyer from Rangoon,
had been to London for qualifying himself for the bar. He
was drawn to the Abhinava Bharat by Savarkar and became
the Vice-President of the Abhinava Bharat and the right-hand
man of Savarkar. Aiyer was a saintly soul who lived a life
of sacrifice and worship. Sri Sardarsinghji Rana hailed from
one of the old ruling families of Kathiawar. He had natur-
alised in France and was a fearless supporter of the struggle
for Indian Independence.

Sri Gyanchand Varma was Secretary of the Abhinava
Bharat, and was a man of great capacity and calibre. Madame
Cama was another great patriotic personality. She was
previously secretary to Dadabhai Naoroji while he was a
member of the British Parliament. She accepted the
revolutionary philosophy of the Abhinava Bharat and was the
first Indian to hoist the national tricolour flag of India at the
Socialist Conference in Germany in 1907. She died unnoticed
in 1937 in Bombay amidst ungrateful surroundings. Senapati
Bapat was meant for Ekigineering, but, destined as he was to
engineer bridges and roads for Indian Freedom, he joined the
revolutionary camp. A peerless patriot and selfless saintly
leader, he has been a great and good name in the revolutionary
movement. Madanlal Dhingra was another Engineering
student. He was a darting arrow in the handcuffed hands of
Mother India. Many others who rose in their later life to
eminence like Dr. Rajan, Sri Shukla — ^who later became Prime
Minister of C.P. — Sri Sukhasagar Dutt, brother of Ullaskar
Dutt of Andamans fame, Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan, Khan of

REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE 31

Nabha and others were initiated as members of the London
branch of the Abhinava Bharat Society.

What was the condition of Indian students in Britain in pre-
Savarkarian days ? Formerly eight out of ten Indian students
prided themselves on being more English in their make-up
and mind than Englishmen themselves. So far, the dream of
Lord Macaulay seemed realized to a large extent. He had
expected the emergence of “ a class Indian in blood and colour,
but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” ’
Almost all educated Indians suffered from Anglomania. Indian
students drank merrily, danced lustily and donned richly.
They visited all quartei's freely, and were very apologetic in
their talk about things Indian. After returning to India, these
ambitious position-seekers would drum in the ears of their
cotmtrymen many faked tales and garbled facts about the
goodness and greatness of the British men and minds !

In these days India had no place in the pictures and columns
of the British Press. That is why Dadabhai Naoroji, the
Grand Old Man of India, had to purchase the shares of the
Daily News to secure a place for his say in its columns.

With the appearance of Savarkar the sun shone on the dark
deeds of British Imperialism in India, and revealed the good
side and the noble aspirations of India to Europe. Savai'kar
was a youth great in courage, great in vision, great in ideas
and great in action. The skyhigh towers and the ocean-wide
powers of the British could not dazzle, delude, or overawe him.
The mist disappeared. The towers and powers looked in their
naked perspective. The members of the Free India Society
began to think. They held weekly meetings, celebrated
anniversaries of Shivaji, Guru Govind Singh and Guru Nanak
and also the Dasara Festival. Indian students from all corners
of Britain joined the festivals heart and soul. Of course there
were some like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who did not join.
They were political sucklings in their swaddling clothes resting
at the breast of the West. With Savarkar’s powerful group
to defend Indian aspirations, officially sponsored meetings in
London did not go well. Strong youthful voices began to blow
away the sheep clothing of God-fearing Englishmen like Sir
Henry Cotton. Moved by the tragic vision of the downfall

1 K. B. Krishna, the Problem of Minorities, p. 138.

32

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

of the Indian Empire, Sir Henry Cotton appealed to the Indian
youths to desist from their pei’ilous aim of carving out a free
Independent India.^ English people and Press felt something
stinging in their hearts. At this stage (Senapati) Bapat wrote
a brochiure demanding Home Rule for India. As a result of
this the Bombay University deprived him of the Sir Mangaldas
Nathubhai Scholarship. Upon this Savarkar pungently
commented whether that scholarship was meant for a student
who prayed for the perpetual slavery of Hindusthan ! -
In Britain May First was observed as a thanksgiving day
in honour of the British victory over the Indian revolutionaries
of 1857. In addition, now a drama was staged in London in
1907 in which Rani Laxmi and Nanasahib were depicted as
ruffians and murderers. To counteract the vilifying pro-
paganda carried through the English play Savarkar decided
to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the heroes of 1857. On
the 10th of May 1907, Indians in Britain held meetings, observ-
ed fasts, took vows, and paid their grateful homage to those
great martyrs of 1857 and displayed on their chests memorial
badges with pride. In trains and in streets scuffles ensued
between impudent Britishers and the patriotic Indian youths
who wore badges to commemorate the great memory of their
heroes. Mr. Hamam Singh and Mr. R. M. Khan, who wore
such badges, quitted their college protesting against the
Principal’s words of insult about the heroes of 1857. Patriotic
feelings clashed. These fearless heroic actions stirred the
hornets’ nest of the British Press. The much-admired and
adored Pandit Shyamji became notorious as a patriot Pandit ;
for the patriotism of a Hindu was a narrower phase than
Hmnanism in the eyes of the Imperialist Britishers ! Pandit
Shyamji attained a marvellous notoriety in the eyes of the
British journals and gentlemen who scathingly condemned
him for his fearless propaganda for Home Rule ! Suspicion
and alarm tightened their grip on the British mind. A little
while ago Elnglishmen had described the blessings of Brahmins
on Surendranath Banerjee as the coronation of the Emperor
Surendranath ! This shock also quickened the palpitation of
the Empire capital for a good many hours.

1 Savarkar, Londonchi Batmi Patre, p. 17.

2 Jbtd., p. 24.

REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE 33

The debates and discussions held in the Free India Society
on the political philosophy were hi^y inspiring and of a very
high order. They echoed abo throughout India in Savarkar’s
letters from London which were read with great interest. The
members of the Abhinava Bharat were all intellectual giants.
Savarkar gave them life and light. He told them that whoso-
ever wanted to live a deathless life should die for the freedom
of his country. He impressed upon their minds that peaceful
evolution had a meaning and a sense, but peaceful revolution
had neither. He emphasized : “ In the end passive resis-
tance falls because it has no backing of the army and because
it presupposes all men to be selfless and believes that all men
will not co-operate with the aggressor." " Besides, it blindly
presumes,” he went on, “ that the aggressor has a high sense
of morality and will not resort to arms or enact new orders
and ordinances.” He illustrated how passive resistance staged
by the farm-workers of Narbonne in Southern France was
suppressed by military forces in 1907 !

In young Savtirkar’s view the sea of htunanity was progres-
sing. “The sooner the deliverance of humanity,” he pro-
claimed, “ the surer the downfall of the British Imperialism ! ”
According to him France was the God-given political labora-
tory for making experiments with all kinds of Governments,
all sorts of revolutions, and all categories of societies. “ The
French people,” he said, “ are by nature gifted with imagina-
tion and initiative and wonderful creative ability,” *

Such was the power of his thoughts and personality !
Savarkar was both magnetic and mesmeric. The India House
was completely under his spell. Sri M, P. T. Acharya,
Savarkar’s one-time colleague, describes the young leader of
the Abhinava Bharat vividly. He says : “ His personal
charm was such that a mei'e shakehand could convert men as
V. V. S. Aiyer and Hardayal — ^not only convert but even
bring out the best out of them. Sincere men always became
attached to him whether they agreed with or differed h:om
him. Not only men in ordinary walks of life but even those,
aspiring to high offices, recognised the purity of purpose in
him, although they were poles apart from him, and deadly
opponents as regards his political objectives. They even opened

1 Savarkar, Londonchi Batmi Patre, p. €2.

S

34 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

their ptirse for his propaganda. That means Savarkar had
a rare tact in dealing with men of every variety. Savarkar’s
aiisterity was itself a discipline to others, which easy-going
people hated and shimned. England was a coimtry for amuse-
ment and most people wanted to make the most out of it.” ^
Relating the story of his conversion Senapati Bapat observes :
“ Before I met Savarkar, I had planned a revolutionary
pamphleteer’s and lecturer’s life for myself. A few months
after I met him, I cancelled my plan and took up the idea of
going to Paris for learning bomb-making.” Bapat further
observes : “ One of the chief reasons was the impression that

Savarkar made on me by his brilliant writing and speaking.

‘ Here is a born revolutionary writer and speaker ; ’ I said to
myself, ‘ I may well leave writing and speaking to him and
tixrn to some other work in the revolutionary field ’.” “
Mr. Asaf Ali described nicely the serious atmosphere of the
India House of Savarkar’s days and wrote in his memoirs of
Savarkar : “ I wonder how so young a person — for he could

not have been much beyond two or three and twenty in 1909
— commanded the will of almost everyone who came into
contact with him.” Asaf Ali added that Savarkar was the
spirit of Shivaji.*

m

Another great task to which Savarkar devoted his energy
was foreign propaganda. He was the first and foremost
Indian leader who perceived and foresaw the impact of vital
forces in international politics. Years after, Subhas Bose took
up the thread where it had been left by this precmrsor and
moved international forces for the cause of Indian freedom.
To that end Savarkar wrote vigorous political articles on
Indian affairs in the Gaelic America of New York, got them
translated into German, French, Italian, Russian and
Portuguese languages and had them published in the respec-
tive countries. In this his aim was two-fold. First, he
wanted to acquaint the civilised world with Indian affairs and
enlist their moral sympathy for the cause of Indian freedom ;

1 M. P. T. Acharya, The Mdhratta, dated 27-5-1938.

2 Senapati Bapat, The Mahratta, dated 27-5-1938.

“ Chitra Gupta, Life of Barrister Savarkar, p. 124.

REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE 35

and secondly, he strove to make India a living issue in inter-
national politics. It was with this aim in view that Savarkar
had deputed Madame Cama ahd Sardar Singh Rana to
represent India at the International Socialist Congress which
was held in August 1907 at Stuttgart in Germany, In spite
of the opposition from the British Socialist representative,
Mr, Ramsay MacDonald, Madame Cama, with the support of
Mr. Hyndman of England and M. Jean Jaures of France,
stood before the Conference to move the resolution on India
and unfurled tlie flag of Independence of India which was a
creation of Savarkar and his colleagues. Inspired by the call
of Independence Madame Cama addressed the Conference
fervently and said : “ This flag is of Indian Independence.

Behold it is born ! It is already sanctified by the blood of
martyred Indian youths ! I call upon you, gentlemen, to rise
and salute this flag of Indian Independence. In the name of
this flag I appeal to lovers of freedom all over the world to
co-operate with this flag in freeing one-fifth of the human
race ! ” ^ The delegates rose up and saluted the flag of Indian
Independence. They were tremendously impressed by her
speech and described Madame Cama as an Indian Princess !
How far these Herculian efforts of Savarkar and the great
endeavours of his comrades were successful can be seen when
no less a personality than the Kaiser himself clearly stated
in his famous reply to President Wilson that absolute political
Independence of India was one of the indispensable conditions
for world peace !

The Indian revolutionaries of Abhinava Bharat were also
in touch with the revolutionary forces of Russia, Ireland,
Eg 5 T>t and China. Savarkar’s aim was to oi'ganize a united
anti-British BYont with a view to rising in revolt simultane-
ously against the British Empire. One of the schemes to be
carried out by the United Front was ‘ the blocking of the Suez
Canal in the event of an armed rising in India ! Prominent
Egyptian leaders then residing in Paris had promised active
support for carrying out the scheme ’ ! - Thus every minute,
every word, every thought and every act of Savarkar breathed
some sort of plan or idea for the liberation of his Motherland

^Maharashtra Prakashan Sanstha, Savarkar-Charitra, p. 67.

*Niranjan Pal, Thirty Years Ago, The Mahratta, dated 27-5-1938.

96 . SAVAKKAB ANP HIS TIMES

and the downfall the British Empire. Such intense
patriotism coupled with his yoimg age, his brilliant brains, his
long*range plans and the British statesmen's correct reading of
men and times were destined to invite on Savarkar unusually
long incarceration as is the fate of every pioneer liberator of
a slave coimtry !

The liberation of the Motherland was to be achieved by a
preparation for war which included (1) the teaching of
Swadeshi, Boycott and national training ; (2) purchase and
storing of weapons in neighbouring states ; (3) opening of
small factories ; (4) purchasing weapons in foreign coimtries
and smuggling them into India ; (5) adopting guerilla tactics
whenever possible, and (6) waiting for a favourable oppor-
tunity to rise in revolt. That opportimity was drawing near.
There were abundant indications that a war was imminent in
Europe; and the revolutionaries of the Abhinava Bharat
expected to take advantage of the world situation and fight
out the Britishers to win back the independence of their
Motherland. In the first issue of the Talwar, the chief organ
of Abhinava Bharat, Savarkar had fully discus.sed and
weighed the possibilities of the outbreak of a war in Europe
within four or five years while explaining the complicated
affaii's arising out of the Kiel Canal in 1908. And that golden
opportunity was not to be missed.

With that end in view Savarkar and his Abhinava Bharat
Society were busy writing, printing, packing and posting
explosives and inflaming literature. Savarkar often appeared
at the weekly meetings of Abhinava Bharat with the colour
of picric acid on his hands. Pistols were smuggled into India
through books and books through false bottoms. The
atmosphere was filled with heroic pride. The Abhinava
Bharat deputed Senapati Bapat and Hemchandra Das to study
the art of manufacturing bombs. They learnt it from a
Russian revolutionary in Paris and brought a Bomb Manual
from him. And Bapat, Hotilal Varma and Hemchandra Das
left London for India with cyclostyled copies of the Bomb
Manual.

In India persecution and prosecution, repression and sup-
pression reared their ugly heads. Brave and brilliant
editors wrote with fiery pens. Vivekananda’s brother.

REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE 37

Bhupendranath Dutt, editor of the Yugantar, Babu Arvind
Ghosh, editor of the Bande Mataram, Sri Prithvigir Harigir,
editor of the Harikishor, Yeotmal, and Sri Bhaskar Vishnu
Phadke of the Vihari, Bombay, were arrested and sentenced
to one or two years’ rigorous imprisonment. In the Punjab
discontent and political excitement fanned by a set of regu-
lations proposed for the new canal colonies reached a demge-
rous point. To avert the trouble, Punjab’s great leader, Lula
Lajpat Rai and the violent agitator Sardar Ajit Singh, were
deported.

The year 1907 was in a turmoil and tempo. The left wing
was forging ahead with the rise of Tilak. His titanic intellect,
formidable personality and his great gifts of leadership wield-
ed an unparalleled influence. Tilak was the first great mass
leader of modern India who enjoyed a universal popularity.
He denounced the mendicancy of the Congress method. His
doctrine spread from province to province. All forces of action
rose under his banner and ultimately the Surat Congress
broke over the Ironsides of Tilakites and the young revolu-
tionaries of Abhinava Bharat who had gathered at Surat and
held a secret meeting of some two hundred strong at the
instance of Babarao alias Ganeshpant Savarkar.

IV

The year 1908 saw many other stirring events in India. A
new spirit was rising in India. The country was at the dawn
of a new epoch. It was a time of violent repression, profound
discontent and fierce antagonism. New hopes, .new desires,
new measures and new thoughts were in the air. Love of
freedom, hatred of slavery and hope for a great future
captivated the young and the old alike. Poets and patriots
blossomed forth. Youths vied with one another in making the
purest and greatest sacrifices on the altar of freedom. Even
revellers shed their revelry and revolted. India drifted from
the policy of petition to the politics of pressure under Tilak
and from the politics of pressure to the potency of powder
under Savarkar. So tense were the feelings and so grim was
the fight that even the good-hearted and god-fearing grand old
man of India, Dadabhai Naoroji, was driven to despair and to
the thought of revolt. The fiery doctrines of boycott of foreign

38

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

goods, the propagation of Swadeshi and the hatred of foreign
rule were spreading all over India. As a result of their fiery
speeches Sri Subramanya Bharati, and Chidambaram Pillay,
an initiated member of the Abhinava Bharat, were jailed.
From London Savarkar was eagerly watching these events in
Madras province.

Another important event of note was that Senapati Bapat,
Hotilal Varma and Hemchandra Das had bj^ now reached
India and circulated the cyclostyled copies of the Bomb
Manual through important centres of the revolutionaries. The
new technique made bombs really effective. And then follow-
ed the most outstanding and memorable event of the year that
■fanned the sacrificial flames of revolution, when Khudiram
Bose threw a bomb in Muzaffarpur on April 30. Two
unfortunate English ladies were killed in the act instead of the
District Magistrate, Mr. Kingsford, for whom the bomb was
intended. It shook violently the whole of Hindusthan and
resulted in the incarceration and transportation of brilliant
editors, great leaders and daring youths of Bengal and Maha-
rashtra. Khudiram’s comrade, Prafulla Chakravarti, killed him-
self w’ith his revolver ; his other comrades, Kanailal Dutt and
Satyendra Bose shot down the approver Narendra Goswami
in the hospital of the Alipore jail and died on the gallows, and
the famous Maniktola trial ended in the transportation of a
batch of valiant fighters like Babu Arvind’s brother Barindra-
nath Gbose, \311askar Dutt, Hemchandra Das, Indu Bhushan
■Roy, Dpendranath Bancrjee and many others to the Andamans.
To cope with the growing furious tide of this revolution Lord
Minto, the Viceroy of India, asked Lord Morley, the Secretary
of State for India for more repressive measures. Morley was
opposed to a policy of repression. But vain, vacillating,
touchy, subtle and a bookish liberal that he was, he ultimately
yielded. And Lord Minto promulgated new regulations,
Criminal Law Amendment Acts and blacked out all the “ Four
Freedoms ”. In Mahara.shtra, Shivrampant Paranjpe was
sentenced to 19 months’ rigorous imprisonment for his inflam-
matory article on the Muzaffarpur Bomb affair. For a similar
reason Tilak, the father of Indian unrest, was deported to
Mandalay on July 23. From his talk with Gokhale, Morley
had scented that Tilak was in close touch with Savarkar and

BEVOIiUTlONARY ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE 39

Bapat and the British Government had asked the Indian Gov-
ernment to arrange for his incarceration. For just before the
decision of the Tilak case some of the members of the
Abhinava Bharat had intercepted in Bombay one night
a message from the British Government regarding the Tilak
affair which contained the information. Sri R. N. Mandlik,
editor of the Vihari, Sri Dhondopant Phadke of the Arunoday,
Thana, Sri Balwantrao Limaye of the Swaraj, Sholapur, Sri
Achyut Balvant Kolhatkar of the Sandesh, Nagpur, Sri N. V.
Bhave of the Harikishor, Yeotmal, and the editor of the Pratod,
Satara, were also put in prison. The approver in the Alipore
case had disclosed Senapati Bapat’s connection with the
Bengali revolutionaries. Upon this Senapati Bapat eluded the
police, escaped and went into voluntary exile for years. Bengal
and Maharashtra were closely linked ! Sir Valentine Chirol
who was then travelling in India wrote to the London Times :

“ The Deccan is honeycombed with secret societies. . . . Even
in Bengal, the Bengalees did the shouting ; it was Poona that
provided the brains that directed the Bengali extremists.” ^

And the fountainhead of the revolutionary movement in
India was Savarkar, the acknowledged leader of the India
House.

The news of Tilak's arrest came as a thunderbolt to Indians
in London. The great statesman Sri Gokhale was then in
London on his fourth political visit, this time on account of the
Morley-Minto Reforms proposals then in the offing. Fearfully
or prayerfully Gokhale declined to preside over a meeting
held in London to protest against the deportation of Tilak and
the repressive measures of the Indian Government, nor did
he attend the meeting. What a contrast ! Morley rightly
wrote to Minto that Gokhale, as a party manager, was a baby
and while any politician aspiring to be a leader should never
whine, Gokhale whined like a second-rate leader ! - In the
same letter Morley appreciated Tilak’s spirit. Whereupon
Minto expressed his view that Tilak was an arch-leader of
sedition ! ® Hiuniliated at the timid and spineless attitude of
Gokhale and hurt by his blank refusal, some of the hotheads

Savarkar, Londonchi Batmi Potre, p. 112.

-K. B. Krishna, The Problem of Minorities, p. 141.

« Ibid., p. 142.

40 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

in the revolutionary camp thought of putting an end to his
life. But Savarkar bridled them and Wtterly condemned the
very sinful thought. He voiced a timely warning that such
a mad act and attack on one of their compatriots for his own
way of thinking would imperil the power and prestige of the
revolutionary movement.^ The proposed meeting was then
held in the Caxton Hall under the chairmanship of Mr. Parekh,
and by a special resolution condemned Gokhale’s attitude
vehemently.

Immediately after Gokhale’s arrival Savarkar with his
lieutenants, Dr. Rajan and Sri V. V. S. Aiyer, had seen
Gokhale and Sri Ramesh Chandra Dutt. There was a discus-
sion on the War of 1857 between them. Gokhale had taught
history and Dutt was a historian. In the course of his talk
with them Savarkar stressed the point of writing and
interpreting the history of 1857 from the national point of
view. The historian agreed to this, but the statesman
disagreed and the discussion ended.

V

The last quarter of 1908 was the busiest period for the Free
India Society. Leaders of note and figures of fame from
India had reached London. Lala Lajpat Rai, Gokulchand
Narang, Babu Bcpin Chandra Pal, Gokhale, .Dutt, G. B.
Khaparde and R. V. Karandikar — ^the last pair for the Tilak
case appeal — ^were then in London. October 16 was observed
as Anti-Partition day, and under the chairmanship of Lala
Lajpat Rai, Khaparde, Karandikar and B. C. Pal spoke on the
occasion. On the same day in the same hall a meeting was
held to extend sympathies to the Indians in South Africa. Sir
Mancherjee Bhownagari was in the chair and Lajpat Rai,
Savarkar, Pal, Khaparde and others were the speakers. Babu
Bepin Pal captivated his audience with his powerful oratory.
His lectimes delivered later on in the Caxton Hall on the 20th
and 21st December were attended by many Englishmen.

On December 20, a National Conference was held. Dada-
sahib Khapsurde presided. Madame Cama spoke on the * Boy-
cott ’ resolution which was seconded by Sri Gyanchand

’ Savarkar, Mori Janmathep, p. 163.

REVOLUTION ARY ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE 41

Vanna. At the same meeting Sri V. V. S. Aiyer spoke on the
resolution on Turkastan congratulating her on becoming a
Republic and was seconded by Sir Aga Khan, afterwards
H.H. the Aga Khan. The main resolution demanding ‘ Swaraj ’
was moved by Dr. Kumarsxvami and Savarkar seconded it.
Addressing the Conference Savarkar said that the true
meaning of Swaraj was absolute political independence. He
also told his audience : “ Knowing this full well, you are
voting for this resolution. Before pas.sing this resolution just
bring before your mind’s eye the dreadful pi'ison walls, and
the dreary dingy cells.” The resolution was passed
unanimously. “The Morley-Minto Reh rms,” declared the
conference by another resolution, “ are deceptive, disappoint-
ing and insulting inasmuch as they will foment communal
tension in India.” And so indeed they proved to be a great
slur on the growdh of constitutionalism in India. Minto’s
craze to outshine the efficient Curzon, his policy of counter-
poise, his fear of a Muslim revolt as threatened by Sir Syed
Ahmed, the spineless nature and want of grit in Gokhale and
Morley’s proverbial unfamiliarity with Indian affairs cul-
minated in a communal division of India holding a nascent
threat to Indian unity ! But the reforms were beyond doubt
a surrender to the revolutionary agitation in India and outside.
“ I detect,” wrote Sir Valentine Chirol from Bombay on
January 8, 1909, to the London Times, “ a very general
tendency to ascribe these lavish gifts to the vigorous actions
of the extremists. If it had not been for the bombs, we should
not have had these boons, was a remark which roughly
summed up the popular opinion in this aspect of the subject.” ^
Immediately after the conference in the decorated Caxton
Hall, the birth-day anniversary of Guru Govindsingh was
celebrated on the 29th of December 1908, when Babu Bepin
Chandra Pal presided. The function began with the song
‘ Amar Desh ’, and Savarkar’s famous song ‘ Priyakar
Hindusthan ’. Sri Gokulchand Narang read at the meeting
his essay on the Guru. Lala Lajpat Rai with his unbending
personality, sturdy patriotism, hallowed by his constructive
work and with his profound erudition poured forth his burn-
ing words. He was a very effective speaker and held a high
^ London Times^ dated 25-1-1909.

42 SAVARKAR AMD HIS TIMES

place among the orators of India. Babu Bepin Chandra Pal,
a sterling patriot, an orator of high rank, a well-read scholar,
a thinker and a great editor also spoke on the occasion. It
was a meeting of scholars, speakers and orators ! After these
great speeches, Savarkar was pressed by the audience to
speak, and he rose amid a deafening applause. Gifted with a
moving tongue, spotless sincerity and burning heart, he
thrilled his audience. A man of faith and conviction is
always irresistible and all-conquering. So was Savarkar with
the personality of a hero ! In the lighted, moving and inspired
atmosphere created by Savarkar even the magic speech of
India’s greatest orator, Sui-endranath Banerjee, the heartforce
and fire of Bepin Babu, the freshness and fervour of Lajpat
Rai and the polished diction of Syed Reza paled into
insignificance ! The only giant Savarkar had not crossed his
swords with, was Pherozeshah Mehta, but even with his great
power of rhetoric Mehta was no Surendranath. Describing
Savarkar as the best orator he ever heard in India or England,
Mr. Asaf Ali wrote afterwards : “ Nor is it an exaggeration to
say Savarkar is one of the few really effective speakers I have
known and heard, and there is hardly an orator of the first
rank either here or in England whom I have not had the
privilege of hearing — excepting Mr. Eardly Norton, of whom
I have heard so much that I should be almost reluctant to
avail myself of the opportunity of hearing him speak lest I
should be disappointed.” '

The fervid patriotism, love of unity and a will to sacrifice
in the Indian youths became an eyesore to the Britishers.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison ! The newspapers
cried hoarse against them. “ Crush the extremists and rally
roxmd the Moderates ” was their theme. British Press,
pensioners and patriots also grew alarmed at the daring and
disloyal attitude of the Indian youths. In the words of the
Standard, “ it is beyond question that not a few of the highly
intelligent Indians in our Universities and reading for the Bar,
are striving their utmost by such means, particularly to
accustom the minds of young rising generation to the idea of
an armed revolt ! ” ^

* Chitra Gupta, Life of Barrister Savarkar, p. 126.

2 Savarkar, Londonchi Batmi Patre, p. 108.

BEVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE 43

The London Times endorsed this view and asked the Gov-
enunent to take great care to control education and to be very
careful as to the kind of people whom it appointed to teach
the youth of India.’ A meeting was also held under the
presidency of Lord Lamington, an ex-Govemor of Bombay, to
consider and adopt means to socialize these warlike elements.
But the meeting was hotly disturbed, only B. C. Pal getting
a smooth hearing. An incident added fuel to the fire. Sri Vasu-
deo Bhattacharya, ex-editor of Sandhya and one-time editor
of Yugantar at about the same time struck Sir William Lee-
Warner a blow on the face for having called Sri Kunjavihari
Bhattacharya “ a dirty nigger ”. Sir Lce-Warner was, while
in India, a terror to the Indian Princes ; and the attack on such
a person was not an ordinary matter. Sri Vasudeo Bhatta-
charya was prosecuted and fined Rs. 20. But the attack made
India House the talk of the whole city. If anyone gave his
address as India House, the listener would at once look up
at the man and say, “ Then you belong to the revolutionary
party ! ” Artists and careerists in London took a dread and
said, “ Who will go to India these days ? There bombs may
explode anywhere and at any moment ! ”

The British Press and the people thus turned their attention
to the wonderful India House at Highgate and its leader. But
when representatives of newspapers visited it, they were
surprised to see that Savarkar whom they criticised and
opposed was merely a beardless and uptodatc youth of
twenty-five. The Standard described Savarkar as an Indian,
with youth and intelligence stamped upon him. Mr. Cambel
Green wrote in the Sunday Chronicle that Savarkar was not
only the spokesman of the students but also of Shyamji
Krishna Varma and said, “ He has a clear olive complexion,
clear deep penetrating eyes, and a width of jaw such as I have
seen in few men. His English is excellent.” He added, “ The
fact is Mr. V. D. Savarkar believes in India for the Indians
and in the complete emancipation of India from the British
Rule. He says India has nothing for what to thank the
English, unless it be the denationalization, as he calls it, of
the Hindus.” ^

Annie Besaht, Wake Up India, p. 238.

- Savarkar, Londonchi Batmi Patre, p. 119.

44 SAVARRAR AND BIS TIMES

The Indian students talked in the Indian languages and
Scotland Yard became non-plussed. So to their succoxu* was
deputed one Mr. Kirtikar, who had worked in the Bombay
High Coxurt in the capacity of a translator, to watch the
activities of the Abhinava Bharat. This plain-clothed detec-
tive resided at the India House under the guise of a student of
Dental Surgery and every day he sent a secret report to the
C.I.D. Office. Suspicion soon fell on him. Dr. Rajan and Sri
Aiyer kept a watch over his activities. One night when he
was out, they broke into his room and found an incomplete
report awaiting dispatch to the C,I.D. On Kartikar’s return
Savarkar and Aiyer interrogated him and unmasked his veil.
Finding that his treachery was unearthed, he trembled from
head to foot at the sight of Aiyer ’s rev'olver and confe.ssed the
facts. The dental surgeon felt the loss of his teeth. However,
instead of ejecting him Savarkar shrewdly allowed him to
continue in India House to make him less troublesome. He,
however, decided that Kirtikar’s reports should go to the
C.I.D. only after his perasal !

Savarkar’s resourceful brain knew all the types and twists
of the revolutionary business. He won the sympathies of the
Irishmen serving in Scotland Yard who actually helped the
Indian revolutionaries in smuggling political literature.
Besides, the Abhinava Bharat had its secret agents in Scotland
Yard. Niranjan Pal, a comrade of Savarkar and son of the
Bengal leader, Bepin Chandra Pal, writes : “ In those days
we, too, had our secret agents in Scotland Yard. Some of
them were sent to London ostensibly as students but really to
act as spies. Two of such men ingratiated themselves with
Savarkar and secured lodgings in the India House. But such
was Savarkar’s magnetic personality that soon they came
under his spell and of their own accord, confessed everything
to him.”^ Savarkar’s sharp and penetrating eyes and the
peculiar way in which he cross-examined any visitor to the
India House exposed many an expert C.I.D. and hoodwinked
the watchdogs many a time.

But the most remarkable and rare gift of Savarkar was
his balanced mind and the power of discrimination. He was
a revolutionary realist and never dre2unt of giving and taking

1 Niranjan Pal, The Mahratta, dated 27-S>ld38.

revolutionary activities in EUROPE 45

life emotionally or by wasting human enei^ and life blindly.
That outstanding characteristic of Savarkar distinguished him
fron. the terrorist or a solitary reckless revolutionary. His
aim was to rise in an organised revolt at the opportime time
and liberate his country from the foreign yoke. The gift of
his marvellous presence of mind and the realist in revolutio-
nary Savarkar were seen when he checked Senapati Bapat
who offered to bomb the House of Commons. Senapati Bapat
states : “ I proposed once to attempt the life of the Secretary
of State for India, at another time, I offered to drop a bomb
in the Parliament House. On both occasions Savarkar
refused his consent and on the second occasion took great
pains to persuade me to return to India without delay for
such work as was waiting for me here. I treasured his advice
and followed it soon enough.” ' Savarkar checked the
Senapati lest their secret mastery of science would be exposed
before it reached India. Moreover, Savarkar prevented the
revolutionary movement from falling into an abyss from a
horrible precipice !

VI

The hot discussions in the India House and the fiery speeches
of Savarkar were too hot for some of the Indian leaders who
visited England in those days. Gandhi ji of South African
fame, who was proud of his being a loyal citizen of the British
Empire, was one of them. Accompanied by the South African
delegates, Gandhiji discussed political philosophy with Savar-
kar. Arguments, reason and history were against Gandhiji,
and his lieutenants supported Savarkar’s views. This left a
sting of bitterness and Gandhiji vehemently attacked the
London revolutionaries and indirectly Savarkar in a violently
non-violent booklet entitled Maro Koto Panth ! The ideological
fight between Gandhiji and Savarkar thus started during the
first decade of the twentieth century, and continued markedly
pronounced, though Savarkar was behind the bars xmdergoing
trials and stresses of life away from the political scene. Their
viewpoints, nay, their very outlook on life, were poles
asunder ! It was a fight between the conscious Gautam and the

1 Senapati Bapat, The Mahratta, dated 27-5-1938.

46

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

spirited Shivaji. Gandhiji arrogated the religion of God to
himself and imputed irreligion of the devil to the revolution^
aries and to those leaders who opposed him. Savarkar repre-
sented the revolting force of a subject people. That force was
the outcome of historic and human laws. This he had made
amply clear in the opening issue of the Talwar, the chief organ
of revolutionaries published from Pai-is in 1909. The passage
quoted below will conspicuously cast a flood of light on
Savarkar’s mental make-up and his human stand and prove
his rational outlook. It states : “ We feel no special love for
secret organisations or surprise and secret warfare. We hold
that whenever the open preaching and practising of truth is
banned by enthroned violence, then alone secret societies and
secret warfare are justified as the inevitable and indispensable
means to combat violence by force.’’ Savarkar further says :
“ Whenever the natural process of national and political evo-
lution is violently suppressed by the forces of wrong, then
revolution must step in as a natural reaction and therefore
ought to be welcomed as the only effective instrument to re-
enthrone Truth and Right.” He then brilliantly sums up :

“ You rule by bayonets and under these circumstances it is a
mockery to talk of constitutional agitation when no constitu-
tion exists at all. But it would be worse than a mockery, even
a crime, to talk of revolution when there is a constitution that
allows the fullest and freest development of a nation. Only
because you deny us a gun, we pick up a pistol. Only because
you deny us light, we gather in darkness to compass means
to knock out the fetters that hold our Mother down.” *

This great, grand and concise doctrine of the revolutionary
philosophy of Savarkar would shine out amongst the
doctrines of world-famous revolutionary philosophers. Presi-
dent Thomas Masaryk, one of the eminent thinkers and men
of action of the modern world, supports this stand when he
says : “ Revolution is a moral act when it is the only means
left for the defence of liberty and justice.”- And Masaryk
was a leader who had worked out and experienced what a
revolution was like ! Savarkar philosophized his doctrines
when he was only six and twenty. If this is not rational

1 Chitra Gupta, Life of Barrister Savarkar, p. 72.

2 Emil Ludwig, Defenders of Democracy, p. 109.

revolutionary activities in EUROPE 47

t hinking , if this is not revolutionary realism and historical
truth, what else is it ? A Shivaji is born with a love for
justice, loyalty to truth, and obedience to God. He is a foe
to tyranny and terror to aggression, for he believes with
Franklin in the eternal truth that rebellion against tyrants is
obedience to God.

Despite these differences Gandhi ji presided over the Dasara
Sammelan in London in 1909 which Savarkar was to address.
Gandhiji said he was very proud to have the honour of sitting
by the side of Savarkar. He expressed the hope that India
would reap the fruits of Savarkar’s sacrifice and patriotism.
Mr. Asaf Ali tells us that while formally introducing Savarkar
that evening to the audience Gandhiji said, “ But Mr. Savar-
kar, the speaker of the evening, is to follow me and I should
not like to stand between you and him,” and Asaf Ali has des-
cribed Savarkar’s speech on the day as one of the finest
speeches he ever listened to ! ' In this speech Savarkar
impressed upon his audience that without Sri Ramachandra
life in India would be nothing. He asked them to remember
that Rama established Ram Raj after slaying Ravan, the
symbol of tyraimy, aggression and injustice, and added that
Hindus were the heart of Hindusthan.

The most singular and consistent note that prevails from
that time till this day in Savarkar is that he was proud of his
race and heritage. An incident of that period also underlines
this fact. One day an English lady, residing in a hotel, asked
Savarkar if he went to church on Sundays. He said, “ No ! ”
The lady paused for a moment and asked him whether he and
his friends were Hindus. Savarkar proudly replied that he
was a Hindu. One of his colleagues protested that Sav'arkar’s
assertion was too direct and would offend the English lady’s
ear. Thereupon Savarkar retorted : “ Then change your
father’s name if you are cowardly ashamed of it. But you
may as well tell the lady that her being English offends my
ear too.” - Savarkar, however, never hated any Englishman
because he was an Englishman.

In the meanwhile Minto was striving to crush the forces
of seditious agitation in India with his new measures.

1 Chitra Gupta, Life of Barrister Savarkar, p. 135.

2 Savarkar, Londonchi Batmi Patre, p. 142.

4ft SAVABKAHANOHISTIMSS

Repression was raging all round. But the revolutionary move-
ment was still spreading and its morning shadow appeared to
the Government longer than what it was. Soon one

branch of Abhinava Bharat was unearthed at Gwalior, another
at Satara and a few small factories of bombs and secret stores
were unearthed in Maharashtra after the arrest of Savarkar’s
elder brother Babarao. Babarao himself was sentenced to
transportation for life on June 8, 1909. on a charge of having
waged a war against the King-Eniperor by publisliing a book-
let of inspiring poems ! One of these poems asked the people.
‘'Pray tell, whoever got political freedom without a war?”
In the absence of his leader brother, Bahai'au led in Maha-
rashtra the then ‘ Quit India ’ movement backed by bombs
and pistols. So hearing the shocking news of the confirmation
of Babarao's transportation for life by the Bombay High Court
in November 1909, Savarkar wrote from London a letter in
poetical lines to his sister-in-law, Babarao’s wife, consoling
her in her great sorrow at the severe blow. The letter written
in verse has since then been a charm for Maharashtrian
womanhood. Savarkar wrote —

“ . . . Even so this our Motherland, our Mother, craving
for the assistance of the Lord that she too be rescued
from the crocodile clutches of Bondage, enters om:
Garden, plucks a fresh flower from the bough and offers
it at His feet in worship. . . .”

“ Behold, O Sister, on one side stands watching the
Past — souls of sages, saints aind heroes of our race gone
before and on the other the Future — generations yet
unborn.” ^

“ Deathless is the family that falls to a man,

For the emancipation of its Motherland,

Filling the skies with the fragrance of their sacrifice,
Made in the welfare of man’s rise.” *

Mark the great simile, noble interpretation of life ! The
feelings are real, experienced and not adopted. He is truly a
Great Man whose heart soars high, whose courage remains
supreme and who can composedly dissolve himself into the
Universal self or feels oneness with Him even when his ‘ self ’
is surroimded by flames !

1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans. * Translatioin.

CHAPTER IV

The Storm Breaks

I

The Abhinava Bharat was pondering over the sentences
passed upon the Maniktola revolutionaries. Babarao Savar-
kar’s heroic sacrifice blazed vigorously under the sacrificial
firmament. The boiling point of British reaction was reached.
The zero hour had struck. And Sir Curzon Wyllie, the brain
and eye of Indian affairs at the India House, fell a victim to
the bullets of Madanlal Dhingra on the first night of July 1909.
Along with him also fell Dr. Cawas Lalcaca, an Anglecised
Parsee zealot, who tried to save the life of Sir Curzon WyUie.
The fateful incident took place in the Hall of the Imperial
Institute, London, at the conclusion of a meeting held to cele-
brate the annual function of the National Indian Association.

Madanlal Dhingra was a manly spirit, a man who looked
into his open grave ! Smartly dressed he looked like a dandy.
He was a devoted follower of Savarkar and was proud of his
nation. One day someone taunted him that the Japanese
were the bravest people in Asia. Dhingra retorted that his
Hindu Nation was nothing less in comparison. In the course
of the talk, it was decided to test the mettle of Madanlal him-
self. A pin was pierced through his palm. Blood flowed
out profusely, but Dhingra remained unperturbed.

A few days before the Wyllie incident Dhingra had asked
his leader whether the time for martyrdom had really come.
Out came the epigrammatic reply from Savarkar : “ If a
martyr is determined and ready that fact by itself generally
implies that the time for martyrdom must have come.”
Dhingra then joined a jolly club where high-placed English-
men attended. He crept into their confidence. There he
learnt to shoot and gained closer knowledge of men like Lord
Morley, Lord Ciurzon and Sir Ciu^on Wyllie. The living symbol
of racial arrogance, the Bengal culprit and the enlightened
despot, Lord Curzon was Dhingra’s immediate target. A few

4

50 SAVASKAR AND HIS TIMBS

days before at a meeting he had pursued this target with the
eyes of a crocodile. But the doors of the Hall were closed
in his face and restless Dhingra returned and said to Savor-
kar, “ The tiger has escaped ! ” Determined to avenge the
misdeeds the British Government perpetrated in India, he
then fell on an equally responsible man, Sir William Curzon
Wyllie, with the fierceness of a lion and achieved his end ! He
was arrested forthwith. Two pistols, a knife and a dagger
were found on his person. After the deed, the doctors who
examined the victims were astounded to see Dhingra’s pulse
beating normal, for he was no common killer. Great was the
strength and noblest was the soul of Madanlal. Dhingra was
then put into the Brixton Jail. And proceedings against
Dhingra commenced.

The incident shook London to its marrow ! Some unusual
crowbar turned London upside down, as it were ! India was
the subject in every British cottage, in every paper, in trains,
in trams, at public squares and in markets, palaces and the
British Parliament. The atmosphere became tense. Dhingra’s
father wired to Lord Morley that he was ashamed to own
Madanlal as his son. Even Dhingra’s brother in London
publicly disowned him. Under the fiery eyes of the Britishers
loyal Indians also trembled. Their holy tears overflowed.
They assembled on the 5th of July in the famous Caxton Hall
to condemn Dhingra. At the meeting Sir Mancherjee Bhow-
nagari. Sir Aga Khan, Sir Surendranath Banerjee, Sri B. C.
Pal and Sri Khaparde were loud in their denunciation.
The meeting was attended by Maharajkumar of Coochbihar,
Sir Dinshaw Petit, Fazalbhoy Karimbhoy, etc. Just then
'Theodore Morrison, a member of the India Council, brought
Madanlal’s brother on to the platform. MadanlaTs brother
spoke sentences which were not his own. Sir Aga Khan, the
chairman, then declared, “ The meeting unanimously condemns
Madanlal Dhingra.” But a defying voice from the thickly
crowded Hall roared, “ No, not unanimously.” 'The chairman
angrily uttered : “ Who says no ? ” Out came the reply, “ I
say no.” The chairman pursued, “ Your name please.” Upon
this some lost their patience and shouted, “Pull him down,
drive him out ! ” In a moment Sir Mancherjee Bhownagari
jumped from the platform and ran in the direction of the

THE STORM BREAKS

51

voice. The challenging voice shot back : “ It is me. My name is
Savarkar.” At this the audience trembled in their joints.
They feared that revolutionaries would now bomb the meet-
ing. Women shrieked, non-partisans took to their heels and
partisans came from words to blows. The chicken-hearted
shook beneath benches and chairs ! In the heat of the passion
a Eurasian swooped down upon Savarkar and struck him a
blow on the forehead. Savarkar’s face was besmeared with
blood. His clothes were dripping, his spectacles broken to
pieces. “ With all this I say, I am against the resolution,” ho
said standing as firm as a rock to maintain his opinion to the
last drop of his blood. As he was saying this, Sri Tiruma-
lacharya, who was standing by Savarkar, thrashed the head
of the aggressor, one Mr. Palmer, and down went Palmer
reeling. Sri Aiyer was about to shoot Palmer, but Savarkar
winked at him and restrained him.

In the meanwhile Sir Surendranath had left the hall protest-
ing against the cowardly attack on Savairkar. Sir Aga Khan
also did not like the rashness of Sir Mancherjee. At last at
the instance of Sir Mancherjee the police interfered, but, seeing
that the truth was on Savarkar’s side, they let him go.
Savarkar also let the Eurasian go ! And the meeting ended.

Tossing from side to side in his bed with a fold of wet cloth
on his forehead, Savarkar at his residence dictated a letter the
very night for the London Times. With its publication he
silenced all the hostile criticism against him. His arguments
were irrefutable when he stated that, as the case of Dhingra
was sub judice, the meeting had no right to usurp the powers
of the court and condemn Madanlal in advance. Moreover,
he had a right to record his vote ! Thus did the historic meet-
ing test the stuff of the leader of revolution and his knowledge
of law ! Here one thing may be made clear. Had the meeting
at the Caxton Hall sympathised with Lady Curzon Wyllie in
her bereavement and done nothing else, Savarkar would have
also sympathised with the poor lady. Savarkar was a poet
and philosopher full of human attributes. Niranjan Pal, who
was present at the meeting, dwells upon this great trait in
Savarkar and observes : “ The assassination of Sir Curzon
Wyllie remixids me of another great trait in Savarkar’s
character, his humanity. An Indian student laughingly

52 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMBS

described how Lady Ciirzon Wyllie ran down the staircase and
threw herself on the body of her husband. All this was too
much for Savarkar. ‘ A wife sobs her heart out for her
husband and you laugh at it ! I do not trust you — can-
not ! ’ Savarkar had replied in burning indignation. It was
a prophetic statement for, the very man secured the King’s
pardon by giving evidence against Savarkar.” ^

When preliminary hearing of the Dhingra trial com-
menced on July 10, at the Westminster Court, despite the evil
advice to feign madness, Dhingra boldly asserted that he
wished that the English Court of Law should sentence him to
death, for in that case the vengeance of his countrymen would
be all the keener. He further said ; “ Just as the Germans
have no right to occupy this country, so the English people
have no right to occupy India ; and it is perfectly justifiable
on our part to kill the Englishman who is polluting our sacred
land. I am surprised at the terrible hypocrisy, the farce and
the mockery of the English people.” Dhingra made this
ex tempore statement as the written statement found on liis
person at the time of his arrest was suppressed by the police
who said that no such statement was recovered at all. Dhingra
was then committed to Sessions.

In India also there were sky-high denimciations of the deed
of Madanlal. N. C. Kelkar, at one such protest meeting, asked
his audience to uproot the doctrine of violence. He said it
was a poisonous tree which must not be allowed to grow, even
in neglected comers. Kelkar was indeed a man of elastic
convictions. Afterwards, while writing the life of Garibaldi,
he openly glorified the sacrifice of revolutionaries as the
fertilizer of the nation ! Gokhale went one step further than
Kelkar. He denoimced the whole London group of about
fifty revolutionaries and insinuated that their activities would
not stop imless Savarkar was arrested.

Dhingra’s Sessions trial was a formal affair. There, too, he
repeated his demand that his statement suppressed by the
police should be read, and offered no other defence. But the
police persisted in their assxuned ignorance of the statement as
in the lower Court. The Court thereupon sentenced Dhingra
to death and the trial ended.

^ Niranjan Pal, The Mahratta, dated 27-5-1938.

THE STORM BREAKS

53

Newspapers now directly attacked Savarkar as the source
of the tragedy. In India his relations and colleagues were
persecuted. Some lost their jobs, some their property and his
father-in-law heroically faced sufferings. Harsh measures
were adopted to crush the Indian students. Pandit
Shyamji’s Scholarship money for Spencer Lectureship was
returned. The Pandit and Virendranath Chattopadhyaya lost
their degrees as a result of their writings and propaganda.
Though Savarkar passed the final examination of the Gray’s
Inn, the Benchers of his Inn declined to confer the degree
upon him. Thereupon Savarkar made an appeal to the autho-
rities of the Gray’s Iim. They appointed a Committee to
inquire into the affair. That Committee instituted an inquiry
into the matter. Match as Savarkar was for the legal brains
on the Committee and their cross-examination, nothing was
proved against him though this Committee was aided by the
Government of India. At last the Committee of the Gray’s Inn
decided to confer the degree upon Savarkar provided he gave
them a written undertaking that he would never participate
in politics. Savarkar rejected their offer in toto ! Getting
the degree was not his aim. His sole aim was to free his
country and make it great and powerful. This barrister was
not meant for conducting petty cases and amass wealth. He
was the nation’s barrister. He was destined to study the case
of his Fatherland and put it before the world opinion as did
Mazzini and Lenin. Hindusthan knows how from the sun-
shine of his youth to the golden evening of his life, he has
been a loyal barrister all along defending and fighting for the
absolute political Independence of India, her integrity and her
honour.

Savarkar was now on the verge of physical collapse. For
the last four years he had worked with a phenomenal energy.
Persecution reached its climax. A yell of wrath fell on him
from all quarters. As the India House was closed down just a
few days before the Curzon Wyllie incident, Savarkar then
resided for some days with Sri B. C. Pal. On the next day of
Wyllie’s death angry crowds stormed Pal’s residence. Elder Pal
told the mob that Savarkar was his guest and averted further
consequences. Savarkar, however, thought it wise to leave
his residence for their and his safety. Homeless, friendless,

54 SAVARKAR AMD HIS TIMES

starving, stranded and shadowed by CJ.D., he wandered
from lodge to lodge and house to house for shelter. But who
shelters a defeated Guru Govind Singh ? Was not the
defeated Tatya Tope betrayed ? And so in a single day
Savarkar had to quit two lodgings. From one of these he was
ousted even at midnight ! The C.I.D. men followed his
shadow. No sleep, no rest, no food ! At last a German land-
lady accepted him as a boarder for some days.

Fatigued and fagged out, Savarkar soon went to Brighton,
a seaside English town, for a change. It was here sitting by
the side of Niranjan Pal on the beach that in overwhelming
emotions filled with helplessness and hopelessness in a foreign
land, the deserted youth sobbed his glorious moving poem
“ Take me O Ocean ! Take me to my native shores. Tliou
promised me to take me home. But thee coward, afraid of
thy mighty master, Britain, thou hast betrayed me. But mind
my mother is not altogether helpless. She will complain to
sage Agasti and in a draught he will swallow thee as he did
in the past.” Several front rank poets and first-rate literary men
of Maharashtra have regarded this poem as an unparalleled
poem on patriotism. Foremost amongst them is the chief
disciple of Gandhiji, Acharya Kaka Kalelkar, who described
it as an inscription on the Marathi language.^ Acharya Atre,
a front rank playwright and journalist, recently commented
in his address at a literary Conference at Indore that every
lofty idea in this pathetic song represented a specimen of great
life and great poetry ! Thirty years after, describing the mov-
ing incident at Brighton, Niranjan Pal remarked : “It has
been my supreme good fortune to have met and known almost
all the great patriots and personalities of modern India, but
I have yet to know of a patriot who loved his Motherland as
dearly as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.” "

Even at Brighton Savarkar had an urgent feat to accom-
plish. It was the publication of Dhingra’s suppressed state-
ment before he was hanged. Savarkar, therefore, called his
comrade, Gyanchand Varma, to Brighton and arranged for
giving publicity to Dhingra’s written statement which had
been suppressed by the police. Two days gone, and Dhingra

1 Kaka Kalelkar. The Pratibha. dated 15-1-1936.

-Niranjal Pal, The Mahratta. dated 27-5-1938.

THESTORMBREAKS 55

would jcm eternity. Savarkar, therefore, resolved that
Dhingra must see the statement published. Accordingly
Savarkar got the copies of Dhingra’s statement printed and
Varma posted them from Paris to different American and
Irish' papers. It was difficult to find an English paper to
publish the statement. But an Irishman working as an
assistant editor on the Daily News undertook the job and
inserted it in his paper during the night shift. The statement
then exploded on the morning of the 16th August throughout
London as a bombshell ! The C.I.D. and police officers were
sure it would never be published. It was in their possession.
But they were outwitted and the statement entitled “ Chal-
lenge ” flashed throughout the world. The statement of
Dhingra read as below :

“ I admit, the other day, I attempted to shed English blood
as an humble revenge for the unhuman hangings and depor-
tations of patriotic Indian youths. ... I believe that a nation
held in bondage with the help of foreign bayonets is in a per-
petual state of war. Since open battle is rendered impossible
to a disarmed race, I attacked by surprise ; since guns were
denied to me, I drew forth my pistol and fired.” The state-
ment proceeds : “ As a Hindu, I feel that a wrong done to my
country is an insult to God.” It concluded : “ The war of
independence will continue between India and England so
long as the English and Hindu races last (if this present un-
natural relation does not cease).”

This was the statement which Dhingra said he did not
remember fully and a copy of which the police had secured
at Dhingra’s residence and another on his person. They had
no idea that there were more copies in existence. How could
Savarkar get a third copy and send it with Varma for being
circulated and published all over the world ? Some papers
like the London Times openly spoke out their ininds by saying
that someone must have put these words into Dhingra’s
mouth ! It was clear beyond doubt that the author of the
statement was the leader himself !

Savarkar saw Dhingra in the Brixton Jail on July 22. He
said to Madanlal, “ I have come to have your Darshan.’* On
hearing the tribute to his sacrifice, glee played over his face
and grateful tears appeared in his eyes. Dhingra’s last wish

56 SAVARKAB AMD HIS TIMES

was that be shoiild be burnt in conformity with Hindu rites,
that no non-Hindu should touch his body, that his clothes and
articles should be sold and the money should be donated to
the National Fund ! Is death more fearless than Madanlal ?
How many such peerless jewels has a slave coimtry to dedicate
for propitiating the Goddess of Freedom ?

Delighted at the frustration of the police plan, Dhingra
embraced gallows on August 17, 1909. His last words as
explained in the statement were, “ My wish is that I should
be bom again of the same Mother and that I should die the
same death for her again.” His dead body was not handed
over to the London Hindus. Still Varma performed the funeral
obsequies and got his head tonsmed according to Hindu rites
in honour of the great soul ! Long live Dhingra for the
intense love of his coxmtry ! They never die who fall in a
great cause ! He fell with faith in his mission and in the
destiny of his countrymen and love for his Motherland.

Dhingra’s deed thrilled the entire world. Huge placards
from Irish papers paid glowing tributes to Dhingra : '* Ireland
honours Madanlal Dhingra who was proud to lay down his
life for the sake of his country.” Only men like Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru, however, who were then in London
seemed to be unconcerned with the momentous deed. Later
in life he has ‘ observed Gandhian Monday ’ over this thrilling
episode even in his ‘ Autobiography

The storm raised by Dhingra did not immediately subside.
Comments continued for a long time.

Mr. W. S. Blunt, author of Secret History oj the English
Occupation of Egypt, wrote about his interview with Mr. Lyne
Stevens, the Doctor Royal friend. Blunt says : “ He talked
about the Dhingra assassination, which seems to have at last
convinced his Royal friends that there is something wrong
about the state of India. People talk about political assassi-
nations as defeating its own end, but that is nonsense, it is
just the shock needed to convince selfish rulers that selfish-
ness has its limits of imprudence. It is like that other fiction
that England never 3delds to threats. My experience is that
when England has her face well slapped she apologises, not
before.” ^ Blunt further wrote in his Diaries that no Christian

^ W. S. Blunt, My Diaries, Part II p. 276.

THE STORM BREAKS 57

marlyr ever faced his judges more fearlesdy or with greater
dignity and remarked that the day of Dhingra’s execution
would be regarded as one of martyrdom in India for
generations.^

Lloyd George expressed to Winston Churchill his highest
admiration of Dhingra’s attitude as a patriot. Chiuchill shared
the same views and quoted with admiration Dhingra’s last
words as the finest ever made in the name of patriotism.
They compared Dhingra with Plutarch’s immortal heroes.*
Lala Hardayal wrote in the first issue of the Bande Mataram,
started by Madame Cama ; “ In times to come, when the
British Empire in India shall have been reduced to dust and
ashes, Dhingra’s monuments will adorn the squares of otu:
chief towns, recalling to the memory of our children the noble
life and noble death of one who laid down his life in a far-off
land for the cause he loved so well.”

And what kind of Swaraj was Dhingra’s ideal for which
he sacrificed his life ? The Abhinava Bharat unequivocally
proclaimed times without number its ideal of Swaraj in these
words : “ India must be independent ; India must be united ;
India must be a republic ; India must have a common
language, and a common script. That script is Nagari, that
language is Hindi. That Repubhc is that national form of
Government in which the sovereign power — whether it be
exercised by a Monarch or by a President, matters not much
— crests ultimately and uncompromisingly in the hands of the
Indian people.” ® The leader of Abhinava Bharat always
repeated : “ Before you destroy anything you must know
what you are going to construct in its place.” He had fully
dwelt on the constitutional problem in his speeches and writ-
ings. His study in political science and constitutional law was
far advanced.

In his famous leaflet addressed to the Indian Princes under
the title, ‘ Choose O Indian Princes ! ’ he states : “ Whether
the head of the Imperial Government of the Indian Nation
be a President or a King depends upon how the revolution
develops itself. . . . The Mother must be free, must be one and

1 W. S. Blunt, My Diaries, Part JI, p. 288.

3 Ibid., p. 288.

® Chitra Gupta, Life of Barrister Savarkar, p. 68.

58 SAVARRAR AND HIS TIMES

United, must make her will supreme.” The leaflet voices a
Warning to the Princes that the newly bom nation would call
them to accoimt for their deeds and misdeeds and swearing
by the blood of Dhingra, it thunders : “ Choose whether you
shall be the first of the nation’s fathers or the last of the
nation’s tyrants.” And the leaflet concludes with a threat :
“When the mightiest of empires is trembling at the very
birth-pangs of this revolution, you, weak as you are, cannot
hinder its onward march or smother its birth any more than
you can change the force of gravitation or the rotundity of
the earth.” ^ ,

It was a year before this momentous period that the leader
of the Abhinava Bharat had tried to contact the Prime
Minister of Nepal, then in London, and had appealed to him
in a letter written in Dhingra’s blood to play the Victor
Emmanuel. Next day the representative of the Prime
Minister sent his message to the representative of the Abhi-
nava Bharat that “ God’s will shall prevail ! ”

n

In Savarkar one finds the unique combination of the bravery
of Arjun and the poetry of Vyas. His pen was as powerful
as his tongue. He was the leader of a revolutionary move-
ment and a great literary power as well. He wielded both
pen and pistol with equal command. Scarcely did a leader of
any other revolutionary movement strike terror into the
hearts of his enemies with his pen and pistol as he did. It
is no wonder that his writings and ballads impressed effec-
tively his personality on the Indian Revolution and inspired
soldiers and patriots to fight the cause of freedom — from Rajaji
to Roy, from Hardayal to Bhagat Singh, from Rajan to Kher,
from Kanhere to Gogate and from the Ghadr to the I.N.A. !

It will, therefore, be appropriate to narrate the history of
his inspiring books and writings at this jimctime. During the
first six months of his London life, Savarkar translated the
autobiography of Mazzini into Marathi. This was the first
book to enjoy an uncommon popularity in Maharashtra. It
was so dearly loved that leading papers and leading men in

1 Quoted in S. L. Karandikar’s Savarkar-Charitra, pp. 317-18.

THESTORMEREAKS 59

Maharashtra extolled it to the skies and it was taken out- in
procession by young and old devotees. Even Sir Valentine
Chirol described this book as the Nationalist Textbook.^
Savarkar’s Mazzini natxirally was the first victim of the Indian
Press Act. The book was mostly loved for the introduction
of the Indian Mazzini, expounding the great mission of the
Italian patriot. The fiery propaganda and the burning
patriotism of this immortal introduction captivated the minds
of the people so much that, though it was suppressed by the
Government, patriotic youths learnt it by heart and repeated
the twenty-five pages c>f its inspiring introduction word by
word ! The book was restored in 1946 after having suffered
proscription for forty years.

The Sikh front also absorbed Savarkar’s mind. He learnt
Gurumukhi, read all the religious and important original
writings such as the Acli Granth, the Panth Prakash, the Surya
Prakash, Vichitra Natak by the Gurus and other works on
Sikhism, and issued many pamphlets. His pamphlet, named
“ Khalsa ” and many others issued in Gurumukhi rained into
the hands of Sikh soldiers, making them conscious of their
duty and of the coming storm, and educating them for the
cause of Freedom. This did not escape the notice of the Gov-
ernment of India.

Savarkar was a great pamphleteer. His brilliant leaflet ‘ O
Martyrs’ stirred the sleeping embers of patriotism in the
hearts of both soldiers and patriots. He wrote in a moving
tone : “ For the war of 1857 shall not cease till the revolution
arrives, striking slavery into dust, elevating liberty to the
throne. . . . No, a revolutionary war knows no truce, save
liberty or death ! . . . But, O glorious Martyrs, in this pious
struggle of your sons, help ! . . . Whisper unto us the nobility
of such an alliance of Religion and Patriotism, the true religion
which is ever on the side of patriotism, the true patriotism
which secures the freedom of religion ! . . . With limited
means you sustained a war, not against tyranny alone, but
against tyranny and treachery together.” -

After describing the noble war of Italian Independence in
Etirope, Savarkar invoked the warriors of 1857 to deliver his

* Sir Valentine Chirol, Indian Unrest, p. 146.

2 Quoted in S. L. Karandikar’s Savarkar-Charitra, pp. 213-15.

60 SAVAREAR AND HIS TIMES

message through their own mighty words and mighty deeds.
His aim in writing his book on 1857 was to in^ire his people
with a biuning desire to rise again and wage a second success-
ful war for the liberation of their Motherland. For achieving
that goal, he always stressed the need for carrying politics and
patriotism into the military forces of India.

Savarkar read at the India House heaps of original letters,
numerous documents and several hxmdred books and all
important references in the British Museum regarding 1857.
He also read Rajanikant’s Sepoys^ Mutiny in the Bengali
language. After incessant study and industry, he wrote in
Marathi his famous work. The First Indian War oj Indepen-
dence of 1857. The manuscript came to India and went back
to Paris, for no press dared publish it in India. The C.I.D.
carried simultaneous surprise raids on several printing
houses in Maharashtra for the manuscript, but failed. As the
publication of his book in Marathi became difficult, some
brilliant members of the Abhinava Bharat in London trans-
lated the manuscript into English. The agents of Scotland
Yard succeeded in smuggling away through their agent a
chapter of the original manuscript and thus the British and
Indian Governments came to know of the coming book. The
British C.I.D. .slyly described the book as revolutionary,
explosive and seditious. The two Governments were so much
terror-stricken and became so much nervous that they
proscribed the book hurriedly which they admitted Wcis not
even published ! This book of Savarkar was the first book
of its kind in the treasury of world literature that was pro-
scribed before it saw the light of day ! Unique honour to the
author who stands unparalleled in this respect in the domain
of the literary world. Savarkar took up the challenge and
held the two Governments to caustic ridicule in the British,
American and European Press ! Even some of the British
papers resented the shameless attitude of their Government.

There was after this a hot pursuit and intellectual fight
for some time between Scotland Yard and the London Abhi-
nava Bharat for preventing the publication on one side and
accomplishing its publication on the other. At last Savarkar
eluded the police and the C.I.D., and succeeded in getting the

THE STOBM BREAKS 61

book printed in Holland in 1909, though the British C.I.D.
Intervened in this afiair in France and Germany.

Equally romantic was the history of its distribution and
circulation ! The book reached India, America, Japan and
China wrapped in specially printed covers bearing fictitious
names such as ‘ Pickwick Papers ’ and ‘ Scott’s Works ’ and was
sold at a fabulous price at times of Rs. 300 for a copy. English-
men distributed copies of the book among their friends as a
rare gift ! Mr. Mahomed Ali obtained it on loan from
Sir Charles Cleveland ! European authors and historians
read the work with great interest. The work became the talk
of the world and since then it has gone through several
editions in various languages.

Echoes and effects of tlie great work were visible in 1914.
It inspired the second war of Indian Independence in 1914.
All the leaders of the Ghadr party who had launched the
Komagatamaru RebeUion had read the book with a religious
zeal, and had drawn undying inspiration from the work. More
tremendously did it influence the third war of Independence
imder the lead of Netaji Subhas Bose in 1943. The names of
the battalions and divisions, songs and slogans, spirit and
inspiration of the I.N.A. were derived from this holy book of
Savarkar. Mr. K. F. Nariman wrote in “ The Savarkar
Special ” of the Free Hindusthan Weekly, Bombay : “ The

idea of the I.N.A. and particularly the Rani of Jhansi Regi-
ment seems to have originated from Veer Savarkar’s proscrib-
ed publication on the great 1857 Revolution and Mutiny.”
Writing about it in the same number of the Free Hindvsthan,
Sri G. V. Subbarao, editor of Goshti, Bezawada, said : “ If

Savarkar had not intervened between 1857 and 1943, I am
sure that the recent efforts of the I.N.A. would have been
again dubbed as an ignoble mutiny effectively crushed by
the valiant British-ciun-Congress arms and armlessness ! But
thanks to Savarkar’s book, Indian sense of a * Mutiny ’ has
been itself revolutionised. And not even Lord Wavell, I
suppose, can now call the Bose effort a Mutiny ! The chief
credit for this change of values must go to Savarkar and to
him alone. And that is why I call him the sun of our Indian
firmament.” In between these two wars of Independence the
book has inspired innumerable martyrs and patriots who

62 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

called it the Gita of the revolutionaries. Sardar Bhagat Singh
published this Gita in India for funds and propaganda. It
was also published in the German language in 1942 by the
Friends of India Society in Germany.

A great book is always bom of the brain and heart of a
great author and its greatness depends on the personality
which gives life to it. In this respect Savai'kar belongs to the
line of Rousseau, Voltaire and Mazzini. They are master-
minds. Their type forms a dififerent category. They are gi'eat
precursors of the coming storm, proclaimers of a new age and
originators of a revolution. To them literature is not a mere
ornament or entertainment for court life. Their literature
bums with a mission for making free citizens out of virtual
slaves. Their books are more dangerous than bombs. Their
books are as decisive as battles ! Rousseau’s Emile was burnt,
princes and potentates quailed before Voltaire and the Gov-
ernments of two countries suppressed Savarkar’s book even
before it had been published ! Rousseau, Voltaire and
Savarkar are not to be measured along with common authors !

This world-famous brilliant and moving work is a story of
hvunan emotions, passions and aspirations. The sweep of the
author’s narration is vivid and irresistible. The work reveals
the author’s rare gift as a poet-historian in action. ’Writing
about this book of Savarkeu", Sir Valentine Chirol in his
Indian Unrest has commented that it is “ a very remarkable
history of the Mutiny combining considerable research with
the grossest pei-version of facts and great literary power with
most savage hatred ! ” ^ Deduct Chirol’s venomous poison
and the uncommon beauty and grandeur of the book will glow
in its splendour ! That is why Sir Valentine Chirol in his
India Old and Neto depicts Savarkar with a loving hatred :

“ Savarkar, one of the most brilliant apostles of a later school
of revolt.” ^ Reviewing the great work, Sri P. K. Atre, a
typical Maharashtrian author and journalist opined that Maha-
rashtra did not produce a greater genius than Savarkar ever
since the great Dnyaneshwar.

The book continued to be proscribed for thirty-eight years.
Owing to the pressure of public opinion the Congress

^Sir Valentine Chirol, Indian Unrest^ p. 149.

*Sir Valentine Chirol, India New and Old, p. 85.

THE STOBM BREAKS 63

Government released the book for publication when its mission
was almost fulfilled. The romantic story of the book is not,
however, yet complete. The original manuscript of this book
was in those stormy days of its birth sent to safe custody.
Mr. D. Y. Coutchino, a staxmch member of the Abhinava
Bharat, escaped to Portugal during those hectic days with the
manuscript through his influence at the Portuguese Embassy
and thence to America. Facing great difficulties and dangers
as an Indian revolutionary, he treasured it as a monumental
document for over thirty-eight years in Washington where
he is a professor in a college, and returned it to Savarkar
after India became free and independent. India lost another
great book by Savarkar. That is the History of the Sikhs
which Savarkar had finished in 1909. The manuscript of the
book was sent to India for publication but was gulped down
by the Indian Post Office in the transmission. It will be a
great deed of national importance, if the Government of India
or the Bombay Government, whichever may be in charge of
the book, restores the manuscript. The reason why Savarkar’s
books were proscribed or gulped down was that Savarkar was
to the British Government what Krishna was to Kaunsa or
Shivaji to Aurangzeb. The Government’s one obsession was
to crush ruthlessly whatever emanated from Savarkar’s brain.
“ Savarkar ” had become synonymous with “ sedition ”. The
British Government of India must have, however, found that
the Ganges was Savarkar’s inspiration, martyr’s blood was
his ink and bones of heroes were his pen ! The Ganges swept
away the British-make dams, the ink reddened the pages of
history and the pen immortalized the names of martyrs and
patriots, and damned the traitors for ever !

m

After Dhingra’s martyrdom threats grew louder. Clouds
hung heavier. Winds blew with a terrific speed. The storm
was coming on. Due to over-exertion, Savarkar’s health was
visibly impaired. Friends prevailed upon him to take rest in
Paris where he was ultimately taken for a change sometime
in January 1910. In Hindusthan his followers, comrades and
relations were persecuted, prosecuted, executed or exiled into

64 SAVASKAR AND HZS TIMES

the darkest Andamans. His elder brother was sent^ced to
transportation for life. His terrific transportation was avenged
by a spirited and lion*hearted youth named Anant Elanhere.
He shot dead Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, the then Collector of
Nasik, in the Vijayanand theatre of Nasik. Kanhere died on
the gallows with his two fearless comrades Deshpande and
Karve on the last day of the year 1909.

At this juncture an attempt was made on the life of the
Viceroy, Lord Minto, at Ahmedabad where a bomb was
thrown by someone from the revolutionary party. As a
result of the proceedings arisen out of this, Savarkar’s younger
brother Narayanrao Savarkar was arrested. All this news
fell heavily on Savarkar. He now prepared himself to stand
at the scene and save their persecution. Friends in Paris
entreated him not to return to London as news had filtered
into their ears that a warrant for his arrest was awaiting him
in London. His friends said to him, “As a general, you
must remain behind to lead. The danger is around you.” But
“ No,” said Savarkar, “ I cannot see the persecution of my
colleagues and followers. As a leader, I must face the music.”
To preach with life and not with mere lips, Savarkar left
Paris. He started to save his soul and lose his life. He loved
the former better. He was made of the stuff of mart 5 rrs. And
martyrdom can be a religion only with a few and not with the
whole party. His decision was as courageous as Shivaji’s
to go to Agra. And Shivaji started for Agra again !

It was Sunday, the 13th of March 1910. The train reached
Victoria station, London. Here had come the much dreaded
Savarkar at last, thought the London Police. The long
accumulated fury burst on him. No sooner did he step out
of the train than the policemen cried out : “ Here he is ! Here
he is ! ” And they arrested him. Perinben Captain, who
accompanied him, was let alone. The shadow of death was
galloping after him. In the eyes of the policemen he read
ruin. The day of his glory had come. The end also had
come with a crash. But who knew then that his end was
the beginning of the end of the British Empire ?

Savarkar was arrested imder a telegraphic warrant from
the Bombay Government under the Fugitive Offenders Act
of 1881. The warrant was granted by the Bow Street Court

THBSTOBUBRBAKS 65

on February 22, 1910. The charges against birn were as
under : —

(1) Waging Mrar or abetting the waging of war against His
Majesty the King Emperor pf India ;

(2) Conspiring to deprive His Majesty the King of the
sovereignty of British India or a part of it ;

(3) Procuring and distributing arms and abetting the
murder of Jackson ;

(4) Procvu-ing and distributing arms in London and waging
war from London ;

(5) Delivering seditious speeclies in India from January to
March 1906 and in London from 1908 to 1909.” ^

An Empire’s laws and system of justice are always soiled
by the blood of the martyrs. Savarkar went to England for
study under a regular passport from the Indian Government
and now he was arrested as a fugitive offender ! In 1910 he
was arrested in England for the speeches he made in India
in 1906 ! What a marvel this British process of law !

England has been the Mother of exiles. The knights-errant
of hberty have foimd shelter in England. Here is an impres-
sive roU-call : Mazzini, Marx, Garibaldi, Kossuth and Lenin.
If Savarkar had been content to conceal his unbounded hatred
of slavery and to pass as a reveller and degree-seeker, there
would have been ample scope for his brilliant genius and
flight of imagination. But no such pretension was possible
for him. So the mother of exiles did not receive him well.
The boast that England was the training ground for the
patriots of the world was reduced to a farce. It was true only
in the sense that England sheltered patriots only of those
coimtries over which their Balance of Power politics hung.
It was not a shelter for fearless freedom-loving Indian patriots
whose coimtry’s fate England had sealed ! The British took
Savarkar to be a Nanasahib sworn to overthrow their yoke,
a Guru Govind Singh in disguise or a Shivaji ready to foster
a rebeUion. So his life was a peril to the imperialists !

Gallows now stared Savarkar in the face. A terrible
vengeance was let loose on his followers. These ardent
patriots said they had come out to set their cotmtry free. And

* Guy A. Aldred, The Herald of Revolt, October 1912.

5

^ SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

their leader in a befitting manner stood up at the peril of his
life to practise what he preached.

After the arrest Savarkar was taken into Bow Street Police
custody. He was now certain about the terrible fate that
would befall his family. In order to soften the severe blow
he wrote his last will and testament and sent it through his
solicitors to his noble sister-in-law, Shrimati Yashodabai,
Babarao’s wife, whom he had no chance to meet this side of
the grave. The testament represents the enormous stress of
emotion under which he was reeling. His family was plunged
in an irretrievable sorrow. His little son had just passed
away ! The eldest brother Babarao was sentenced to trans-
portation for life, the younger brother was in jail and he him-
self in the Brixton jail. So liis memory to the family was
fragrant. His glorious promise and the sudden separation
became the theme of their sorrow. This touched him to the
core. He expounded in his poetic will the noble and sublime
ideal for which the family had fallen. He reminded liis
sister ; —

“We will work and die in defence of Righteousness ;
thus had we pledged our words. Behold, the test has
come, we enter the flames. We have kept our word. . . .
We dedicated to Thee (Motherland) our thoughts ; our
speech and our eloquence we dedicated to Thee, O
Mother ! My lyre sang of Thee alone, my pen wrote of
Thee alone. . . . Thy cause is holy ! Thy cause I believed
to be the cause of God ! and in serving it I knew I served
the Lord ! . . . These are thy ideals ! Thou art hero’s
better half ! be thy life as supremely heroic. . . . Good-
bye, dear Vahini, Good-bye. . . . Convey my best love to
my wife and this : —

That it was certainly not blindness that goaded us on
to this path ! No ! we entered it under the full blaze of
the searching light of Logic, History and Human Nature :
knowing full well that a Pilgrim’s Progress leads through
the valley of Death, we took up our Cross and deliberately
followed Him,”

Savarkar was produced at the Bow Street Police Court on
March 14, 1910. After some postponements, on April 20, the

XHB STORM BBSAKS 67

Magistrate refused to release him on baiL Upon this Savarkar
was transferred from Bow Street Police Custody to Brixton
jail, wherein he had a famous friend. There an Englishman
by name Guy A. Aldred was also undergoing imprisonment
for having published Shyamji Krishna Varma’s fiery paper,
Indian Sociologist, suppressed by the British Government.
Aldred was the first Briton to suffer imprisonment for the
cause of India’s freedom ! Strangely enough, he had appeared
in the same dock, in the same court, before the same
Magistrate and had faced the same Chief Inspector of Police,
Mr. McArthy, and Mr. S. A. T. Rowlatt, Junior Counsel to the
Treasury, who later achieved notoriety in India. Savarkar’s
comrades saw him in the Brixton jail. Writing about his last
meeting with Savarkar in Brixton jail, Niranjan Pal states :
“ I asked Savarkar why he ignored our warnings and pleadings
and left Paris knowing full well that a former comrade had
turned an approver and a warrant for his arrest was awaiting
in London.” Pal adds ; “ Therefore, had Savarkar wished
it, he could easily have remained in safety and comfort in
the French Capital as other Indian revolutionists were doing
in those days. Instead he came to London to be arrested,
because, he told me, standing behind the iron-bars of Brixton
Prison, his shoulders were broad enough to bear the conse-
quences. He had the courage of his conviction.” ^

On May 12 the Magistrate gave his decision that Savarkar
should be sent to India for trial. Mr. Vaughan, counsel for
Savarkar made an application for a writ of Habeas Corpus.
The appeal made against the decision of the Bow Street Court
and this Habeas Corpus application were discussed on June
2 and 3 before the Divisional Court. The Chief Justice upheld
the decision of the Bow Street Court. Once again an appeal
was made against this decision to the Coiut of Appeal. But
the Chief Justice Vaughan Williams upheld the decision of the
Divisional Court and sympathetically handed Savarkar over
to the Indian Government which imder a special ordinance
had created a Special Tribunal in India for Savarkar’s trial.
Mr. Justice Coleridge dissented from sending Savarkar to
India but his decision was waived as a minority view.

1 Niranjan Pal, The Mahratta, dated 27-5-1938.

68 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

In the meanwhile, somewhere in May 1910 Irish and Indian
revolutionaries also attempted at rescuing Savarkar while he
was an imdertrial prisoner. They lay in ambush awaiting
the police van which carried the illustrious prisoner to the
Court and back to the Prison. But it seems that the plan
leaked out and the police van which they waylaid turned out
to be a vacant one ! For Savarkar had been taken by a
different route. Savarkar’s other comrades also struggled
heroically for his release. Someone had thought out a plan
of impersonating Savarkar in his cell, but failed. They paid
their loyal homage to their leader. Savarkar was now on the
eve of being extradited to India. Therefore he thought it his
loving duty to bid farewell to his comrades in England and on
the Continent. This farewell is a masterpiece of patriotism,
humanism and duty ! It is an illustration of great poetry,
great ideas, great vision and great life ! It is as follows : —

The Farewell

“ Whose heart to heai t by silken ties is knit
Of friendship sweet, that sweeter grows by far,
Partaking of Godly Sacrament of Mother’s creed divine :
Oh friends ! Farewell ! as tender and fresh
As the morning dew that wakes the fragrance
Friends adieu ! adieu ! !

God-appointed Duty

We part to play our God-appointed parts
Now pent and nailed to burning Rocks, now tossed
On surging waves of Fame ; now seen now lost
Or humble or exalted — ^wherever posted by the Lord
Of Hosts, yet posted best, as if alone it was
The mission of our life thus there to act.

Historic Stage

As in some oriental play sublime.

All characters, the dead as well as living
In Epilogue they meet

Thus actors we innumerable all once more shall meet

THE STORM BREAKS

69

On History’s copious stage before the great
Applauding audience of Hmnanity
That would with grateful cheer fill hill and dale
Till then Oh loving friends, Farewell ! Farewell !

Humaotty to Guide

Wherever may my humble ashes lie
In the Andaman’s sad brook whose weeping course
Add to its dreariness a tongue or stored by Ganga’s
Sacred crystal stream in which the stars
Their midnight measures dance —

They will be stirred with fire and glow
When Victory’s trumpet, blasts proclaiming
‘ Shree Ram has crowned his chosen people’s brow
With laurels golden green ! The evil spirit is cast
Away and chased back to the deep from whence
It first arose ! and Lo ! She lordly stands,

Our Mother Ind, a beacon light Humanity to guide.
Oh martyred saints and soldiers, do awake !

The battle is won which you fought and fell !!

Till then Oh loving friends, farewell ! farewell !

Sacrifice a Law

Watch sleeplessly the progress of our mother
And learn to count it, not by so much work
Done or tried, but by how much they suffered.

What sacrifice our people could sustain !

For work is chance but sacrifice a law ;

Foundation firm to rear a mighty Dome
Of Kingdoms new and great !

But only great if their roots be in martyr’s ashes laid
Thus work for Mother’s glory till God’s breath
Be rendered back, the Godly mission done —

A martyr’s wreath or victor’s crown be won ! ! ” ^

The British Government thus gave a sigh of relief, like the
ferocious Aurangzeb, at having trapped Shivaji at last ; and
they shipped him off.

1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans.

CHAPTER V

Epic Escape and World-Famous

Trials

I

On the first day of July 1910, the steamer s.s, morea convey-
ing Savarkar to India started on her historic voyage from
London ! Proud like a kite, she held her prey in the clutches.
She tossed on. But woe followed the waves. The book of
fate was signed and sealed by destiny ! There was some
engine trouble and the morea required repairs in the neigh-
bourhood of the port of Marseilles. So she anchored at
Marseilles on Thursday evening, July 7, 1910. On June 29
the British Government had informed the French Govern-
ment that the morea was bound for India with a political
prisoner, and requested the French Government to watch the
steamer, if she anchored at Marseilles, and to guard against
any possible attempt of Savarkar’s rescue by the Indian
revolutionaries on the Continent. Mr. Parkar, the C.I.D.
officer from London and Mr. Power, Assistant Superintendent
of Police from Bombay, were in charge of the illustrious
prisoner.

Though tied to a sacrificial post, Savarkar talked freely,
during the course of the journey, to the amazement of the
passengers. Inwardly he was revolving the idea of escape.
He had thrown a measuring eye at the port-holes. The
halt at Marseilles put his heart in a flutter. Had his message
to the comrades on the Continent reached them through
Aiyer ? Would they come to his rescue ? Night was coming
on. His expectations now darkened into anxieties. All night
long restlessness tortured him and doubts assailed him. Dawn
broke. His thoughts now galloped. Mother Ind seemed to
whisper to her darling son : “ Flee ! flee ! the time is not

gone ! Oh ! my son ! I would not see your neck in the rope !
Did you forget that my great son Krishna ran away when
persecuted by the tyrant Jarasandha ? Don’t you remember

EPIC ESCAPE

71

the historic escape of my Shivaji from Agra ? Wotild you
not learn ansrthing from the daring escape of Napolecm from
Elba ? Flee ! flee ! your flight will bring to light the heroic
endeavours of my sons to shatter my fetters. You are not a
mouse to be easily trapped. You are the President of a
revolutionary party. Flee, for my sake, flee ! Now or never ! ”

An inspired ray appeared in Savarkar’s eyes. He collected
himself. His heart throbbed with the thought of swift escape.
His face lit with a fire of decision. Yes, he was a lion, and he
would not die the death of a mouse. He resolved to venture.
He stood up ! It was now morning. Both the officers in
charge were asleep. He asked the guard on watch to take
him to the water closet. The guard woke up his companion.
Savarkar bit his lips ! Both accompanied him. And Savarkar
had to play a ruse. He asked one of the guards to fetch some
article left behind. He went. Savarkar entered the water
closet and bolted it from within. The guard was rather in-
attentive. There was a glass pane fitted in the door of the
water closet. This was a special arrangement for watching
the man inside.

There was no time to lose. Savarkar’s actions were more
rapid than his thoughts. He took off his night gown which
he had purposely put on and threv/ it over the glass pane of
the water closet. Then in the twinkling of an eye, he jiunped
up, squeezed himself out of the porthole at the top of the
water closet, and murmiuring ‘ Hail ! thee, Goddess of
Liberty ! ’ jumped into the sea. The guard caught sight of
him. “ He is off ! ” shouted the guard. There was a din on
the steamer. The guards opened fire at the escaping prisoner.
Savarkar heard bullets whizzing by. This was the time to
put to test his hard-won skill in swimming cind climbing. The
glorious son of Hindusthan now dived, now swam through the
shower of bullets, reached the steep end of the harbour of
Marseilles, and climbed the quay. Once he fell down, like
the lizard before Brutus, in his attempt at climbing the quay.
The second time he succeeded and ran off. The pursuing
marine gendarmes who had jumped after him covild not catch
him. He was free, legally, mentally and bodily ! He had
scored a triumph, and held the British Government to ridicule.
Britannia might be once ruling the waves, but she could not

72 6AVARKAR AND BIS TIMES

rulte the waves that carried Savarkar to the shore of France ;
nor could she rule the waves created by Savarkar, which
tinned the ship of his Motherland from slavery to Swaraj I

The pursuers were in hot chase. Savarkar ran excitedly
for about five hundred yards from the harbour. He saw trams
running, policemen on duty. He wanted to hire a cab. But
he had no money. His freedom for a coin ! So he asked a
policeman on duty in broken French to take him to the
nearest Magistrate, but the policeman did not pay attention
to him. The pursuers who had now overtaken him all the while
crying out “ Thief ! Catch him ! ” greased the palm of the
policeman, and with his connivance dra gg ed Savarkar to the
steamer. It was clearly a breach of International Law. The
British guards had arrested Savarkar on a foreign land !

It was fated that Savarkar’s colleagues, Madame Cama and
Aiyer, who had planned his rescue, should be late by a few
hours. They were driving post-haste towards the harbour.
They reached the scene to hear the crowds gossiping with
their eyes and lingers towards the steamer. They must have
cursed themselves. All day long the whole of Marseilles was
agog ! Crowds flocked towards the harbour. And mortified
at the disgrace, the morea set sail early next morning.

The news of Savarkar’s thrilling escape on July 8, 1910,
crossed the oceans. India’s cry for freedom filled the skies,
and Mother Ind’s heart-rending bewailings .stirred the world.
India was discussed for the first time in foreign countries.
Hindu manhood glowed in resplendent glory and opened the
eyes of foreign institutions which doubted the virility and
valoiu: of India. The entire European Press published the
Hindu hero’s life as best as it could and compared him with
Mazzini, Garibaldi and Kossuth, and stamped him as a mart 3 a'.
Daring and devoted nation-builders like Shivaji, Napoleon,
Churchill in 1916, De Valera in 1918 and Subhas Bose in
1941 performed miraculous escapes, but Savarkar’s escape was
the most heroic and thrilling the world ever witnessed ! It is
an epic and unique example of ‘ propaganda by deed.’

Eiuraged at their discomfiture and filled with fear of
degradation in service, the officers in chimge, once back on the
MOREA with their charge, began to use foul, filthy and violent
language about Savarkar. They even threatened him with

^VORLD-FAMOUS TRIALS 73

torture at nightfall ! One of them exclaimed, “ What a breed
these Savarkars are ! ” Savarkar rebuked the boiling guards
and officer sternly. He had watched one officer keeping a
loaded revolver in his trousers just over his head. Sure
of that support at hand, Savarkar struck them dumb with
these words : “ Look here, you are taking me to the gallows.
It is quite natural that I should try my best to escape. If you
want to live by the side of your wife and children, take care
not to insult or touch me. For I have already set fire to my
home and will not fail to vindicate my self-respect and safety
by all means. Be then prepared for the eventualities.” The
guards understood the gravity of the situation and kept mum !
At Aden the s.s. sasti took charge of morea passengers and
post. The guards huddled Savarkar into a tiny cabin, only
a space of four feet was allowed to him to stand, move and
walk ! Sunlight became a luxury for him. Hand-cuffed and
closely tied to each guard by turns on one side, stiffled by
excessive heat and crushed by a colossal disappointment on
the other, Savarkar had to stand a tide of tense feelings for
throwing away life at once ! But he overcame the feelings
and survived.

Savarkar’s failure at Marseilles was, however, glorious. A
noble failure serves the world no less than a crowning success.
And crushing failures have often in them the germs of a
glorious future. Our greatest glory, says Goldsmith, consists
not in never fcdling, but in rising every time we fall.

n

The s.s. SASTI reached Bombay without any mishap. On
July 22, 1910, the prince of Indian revolutionaries was receiv-
ed at the Bombay Harbour in a befitting manner. Hand-
cuffed, he was marched through rows of drawn swords. A
close motor-van transferred him to a closed special train which
delivered him to the Nasik Police custody. Few days later,
he was brought to the Yeravada Jail. Mr. Joseph Baptista,
his counsel, interviewed him on September 13, 1910, at the
instance of Madame Cama. Mr. Baptista had already receiv-
ed the papers of the case from Mr. Vaughan, Savarkar’s
London solicitor.

74 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Under a Special Tribunal Act a Special Tribunal was
appointed to try the case without a jury or a right of appeal.
The tribunal was composed of the Chief Justice of Bombay,
Sir Basil Scott, Sir N. G. Chandavarkar and Mr. Justice
Heaton. The Counsels for the prosecution were an imposing
array. Mr. Jardine, the Advocate-General, Bombay, Mr.
Weldon, Sri Welinkar and Mr. Nicolson, the Public
Prosecutor. The defence consisted of legal luminaries like
Mr. Joseph Baptista, Sri Chitre, Sri Govindrao Gadgil and
Sri Rangnekar. Three trials were to be heard by the
Tribunal. The first trial involved thirty-eight accused
including Savarkar, the second involved Savarkar and
Gopalrao Patankar, both co-accused in the first and the second
trials. In the third, Savarkar was alone ! All were to be
tried under eight different charges. Kashinath Ankushkar,
Dattatray Joshi, W. R. Kulkami and Chaturbhuj, the cook of
the India House with whom Savarkar was alleged to have
sent twenty Browning pistols to India, were the approvers.

Savarkar was transferred from the Yeravada Jail to the
Dongri Jail in Bombay to stand his trial. The trial opened
on September 15, 1910. A Special party of fifty armed police
guarded the High Court. The Police Commissioner of Bombay
personally supervised the police arrangements in the Court.
Only few representatives of newspapers were permitted into
the Court. Savarkar was brought to the Court in a closed
van under an armed escort. As soon as he stepped into the
dock, he heard the sound of clapping ! It was a stark
surprise. He looked at the empty galleries and saw vacant
benches. He saw nobody there. Who welcomed him then ?
They were his co-accused in the dock down below. They gave
a spontaneous ovation to their leader of international fame !
A unique reception and homage in the political history of the
world by those who stood on the threshold of death to a leader
who awaited the same fate ! To the pleasant surprise of his
comrades, he recognised after a few moments’ guess his
brother, Narayanrao, in the dock, now grown into a fine youth.
The trial opened like a great thrilling drama. Savarkar’s
thrilling escape at Marseilles had rivetted the attention of the
world on the Nasik Conspiracy Trial at Bombay. Hindusthan
watched it with mixed feelings of horror and anxiety.

WORLD-FAMOUS TRIALS 75

Silence was proclaimed. The Chief Prosecution Counsel,
Mr. Jcirdine, rose and made the opening speech for the prose-
cution, and occupied the whole of the first day’s proceedings.
When the Court resumed hearing on 26th September, it was
argued before the Tribunal that they should stay the proceed-
ings and allow Savarkar’s appeal against his arrest at
Marseilles to go to the French and British Governments. This
objection was overruled. On the 27th and 28th September
the Advocate- General continued his speech. After two pro-
secution witnesses were examined and cross-examined, the
Court asked Savarkar to cross-examine them if he so desired.
Thereupon Savarkar rose and stated before the Tribunal that
he did not recognise the juri.sdiction of the Indian Govern-
ment to try him as he was entitled to the Right of Asylum
and therefore to the protection of French Law. He added
that he had entirely abandoned himself to the French Nation,
the land of Fraternity, Equality and Liberty, and so he
would not take any part in the trial. On the same day
Savarkar’s counsel Mr. Baptista raised the point that
Savarkar’s arrest was illegal. The Court overruled the objec-
tion. On October 1, 1910, the provisions of the Extradition
Act were fully discussed. When asked by the Court, Savarkar
refused to say anything on the point. The Court declared its
opinion that Savarkar’s illegal arrest at Marseilles did not
affect the powers of the Indian Law Courts to try him. During
the course of the trial, the prosecution withdrew the charge
against Savarkar that the accused had waged war against
His Majesty the King. Thus the second trial ended before its
start. During the protracted trial many witnesses for the pro-
secution were mangled. About three hundred witnesses were
examined and cross-examined. Majority of the accused
complained to the Court that they had given their statements
before the Magistrate under tortures or for saving their rela-
tions from harassment at the hands of the police and the same
should not be taken to be true.

After the witnesses came the statements of the accused.
When the Chief Justice asked Savarkar to have his say, he
stated, “ I am quite innocent of the charges laid against me.
I took part in the proceedings of the trial in England where
courts are established by democratic rules sanctioned by the

76 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

people. In such courts, one can expect to get justice. There
the authority does not rely upon brute force. The condition
of In dian Courts of Law is quite the reverse. I am not
amenable to the Jurisdiction of Indian Courts of Law. I,
therefore, decline to give any statement or bring any evidence
for my defence.”

Then followed the arguments of the counsels. The Advocate-
General made a long speech which lasted for a week. Though
Savarkar’s name was last on the list of the accused, he began
with Savarkar ! The defence Counsels took a httle more than
a week to complete their addresses. One of the accused,
Gangaram Kupchand, read out his own statement in his
defence.

Chief of the revolutionary party as he was, Savarkar bore
himself with courage and dignity throughout the trial. Dressed
in a fine European suit, he glowed with smiles, intelligence
and brilliance. He looked like a hero confident of his cause.
He had made a sincere appeal to his co-accused to throw as
much brunt and responsibility upon him alone as possible and
try to mitigate their sufferings, and secure their acquittal.
Such a life and death struggle could not embarrass him. On
the contrary he helped the defence Counsels by jotting down
points for cross-examination. Throughout the trial he cheer-
ed up the broken-hearted, and encouraged others. The end
was near at last. The accused discussed among themselves
about their crowns and crosses. A cross or gallows or trans-
portation was considered first class. Lesser sentences were
considered second class or pass class according to the period
of the sentence, and an acquittal was deemed a failure !

At last came the day of judgment after sixty-eight days of
protracted trial. It was Saturday, the 23rd of December 1910.
The judges took their seats amid pin-drop silence. After
reading the judgment the Chief Justice began to announce
sentences and started with Savarkeir. He announced :

“ Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the sentence of the Court upon
you is transportation for life sind forfeiture of all your
property.” The sentences on the other accused followed.

The Court struck the leader when he was gagged. The
decision was ex parte. The legality of his arrest on French
soil did not matter to the Tribunal. That he was before them

WOBLD-FAMOUS TRIALS

77

during the trial was sufficient The fact that he was brought
to India on an illegal warrant was not a point of consideration
for their just heads. What a glaring strain on law and out-
rage on the International Law !

The Special Tribvmal passed judgment on a man whose
case was sub judice in the International Court at the Hague !
In a country swayed by imperialism, justice also assumes an
imperious face and imperils truth. It is not justice. It is
the dark desire for domination. The vulgeirity of the saying,
“ Everything is fair in love and war,” is seen in its liideous
colour during such great political trials. The party or Govern-
ment in power sets lawyers busy not to find truth and give
justice, but to find reasons for upholding the predetermined
legal answers ! Did not Englishmen try Mary Queen of Scots
though they had no power or right to do so ? Even so did
they try Savarkar. Mary was not born an English subject,
nor was she ever denizated. One more sovereign point. It
is the received doctrine that a foreign sovereign is immune
from all processes of law. Her death was a pohtical necessity
and Mary's head fell on the scaffold !

Out of the other thirty-seven accused in this famous Nasik
Trial, Shankar Vaidya, Vinayak Barve, and Vinaj'ak Fulam-
brikar were set at liberty at the commencement of the trial.
Vinayak Gaydhani, Ramchandra Kothe, Govind Bapat, Hari
Thatte, Trimbak Jog, Shankar Mahajan, Mukund Moghe and
Keshav Paranjpe — these eight were acquitted. Keshav
Shripad Chandvadkar alias Brahmagiri Buwa was sentenced
to transportation for fifteen years. Gopalrao Patankar,
Krishnaji Khare, and Trimbakrao Marathe — these three were
sentenced to ten years’ rigorous imprisoxunent each ; Damodar
Chandratrye, Puriishottam Dandekar, Gopal Dharap, Sakha-
ram Gorhe and Vishnu Bhat — ^these five to five years’ each ;
Shridhar Shidhaye, Waman Palande, Damodar Paranjpe and
Raghimath Bhave — ^these four to four years’ each ; Vishnu
Kelkar and Kashinath Tonape — these two to three years’ each ;
Purushottam Gokhale, Anant Konakar and Vishwasrao
Davre — ^these three to three years’ each ; Vinayak Tikhe,
Balwant Barve and Sakharam Kashikar — ^these three to two
years’ each; and Vinayak Manohar, Gangaram Rupchand,

78 SAVABKAB AND HlS tIMBS

Narayanrao Savarkar and Raghunath Ambedkar— these four
were sentenced to six months’ rigorous imprisonment each.

When the judges rose, the patriot-prisoners sprang up to
their feet and shouted “ Hail ! thee, Goddess of Liberty ! ”
even on their way to the savage jails. The judges were
startled and looked back. The police rushed in. In the dock
Savarkar tried to bid good-bye to his brother, but was not
allowed to do so. So he waved his hat, and under the escort
he walked steadily away from the court with his princely
countenance.

The judgment in Savarkar’s trial deals exhaustively with
various political and secret activities of the Abhinava Bharat,
its inflaming pamphlets, its books, its plans and aims and says :
“There is evidence in the shape of certain documents found
in the possession of the accused Kashikar, shortly after the
arrest of Ganesh Savarkar in 1909, which indicates that the
association aimed at some sort of organization founded upon
the model of Revolutionary Societies in Russia. The sug-
gested methods of preparation for war are the purchase and
storing of weapons in neighbouring countries to be used when
opportunity should occur ; the opening of many very small
but secret factories at some distance from one another for the
manufacture of weapons clandestinely in the country seeking
independence and the purchase by secret societies of weapons
in other countries to be secretly imported in merchantships.”

This was an historically true assessment of the Abhinava
Bharat. The Society had storehouses of bombs at Bassein
and other places. Bomb factories were also started and were
working in the suburbs of Bombay and other places in Maha-
rashtra. After describing Savarkar’s various activities the
Judges observe ; “ We find the accused guilty of the abetment
of waging war by instigation, by the circulation of printed
matter inciting to war, the providing of arms and the distribu-
tion of instructions for the manufacture of explosives. He is,
therefore, guilty of an offence punishable under Section 121-A
of the Indian Penal Code. We also find him guilty of conspir-
ing with the other accused to overawe, by criminal force or
show of criminal force, the Government of India and the Local
Government.”

But the tragedy did not stop here ! Not content with one

WOBLO-FAMOUS TBXALS 79

transportation for Savarkar the Indian Government of Lord
Hardinge and the Bombay Government of Lord Sydenham
instituted a second case against Savarkar, this time charging
him with abetment of the murder of Mr. Jackson, the Collector
of Nasik ! The Indian Government dreaded his return even
after serving a sentence for twenty-five years ! It was mad
with vengeance ! It knew that a day for this man was a
month for others ! The same Tribunal was to try him. The
show was one-sided like the former one. Savarkar maintain-
ed his incontrovertible stand even in this trial, refused to
stand to their judgment, and prejudice his case at the Inter-
national Court. But it mattered little to the Tribtmal.

This trial opened on January 23, 1911. After the Advocate-
General’s summing-up, Savarkar was brought from the Dock
to the Bar to have his say. Savarkar reiterated his innocence
and said that he had no direct or indirect connection with the
crime. He pointed out to the Court that the only evidence
that came before the Tribunal of his alleged complicity was
the pamphlet, Bande Mataram, found with Chengirirao. But
that too was not concerned with Jackson’s murder ; because
it was clear from the evidence that it was despatched from
London after the murder, he added. As for the pistol, which
was used in killing Jackson, it was strenuously contended that
there was no sufficient proof that Savarkar was the person,
who entrusted the twenty Browning pistols to the cook
Chatturbhuj with one of which Jackson was killed.

Despite these overwhelming odds, however, on January 30,
1911, the Tribunal sentenced Savarkar to another transporta-
tion for life ! Upon this Savarkar rose and declared : “ I am
prepared to face ungrudgingly the extreme penalty of your
laws, in the belief that it is through sufferings and sacrifice
alone that our beloved Motherland can march on to an
assured, if not a speedy, triumph ! ” ^

Two transportations ! Unsurpassable, unheard of ! Release
after half a century ! A unique record and a landmark in
the political history of the world ! It is significant that the
judgments of these famous trials have not been reported in
the law reports !

Was Savarkar shocked at the savage sentences passed upon
^Chitra Gupta, Life of Barrister Savarkar, p. 117.

80 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

him ? Not in the least. He had entered the sacrificial
conflagration with iron will and divine devotion. Nothing
conquered his invincible spirit, for nature had given him the
stoutest heart of his age that could not be crushed by adversity
or peril. He fell. He fell for a cause for which Nanasahib
died, Tatya Tope fell and the glorious Maha Rani Laxmibai
gave her life on the battle-field. The punishment inflicted
upon Savarkar was titanic, but his indomitable spirit was an
iceberg. He was aged twenty-seven years, eight months and
three days when Government laid him in his veritable grave !

The brave son of Hindusthan gave a message to the Indian
youths ! The youths, who were acquitted in the first trial,
brought a burning message in the following poetic lines from
their leader ;

First Instalment

“ Pleased be Thou, Mother ! to acknowledge this little
Seirvice of Thy children.

Boimdless is our indebtedness to Thee ! Thou chose us to
bless and suckle us at Thy breast !

Behold ! We enter the flames of this consecrated Fire to-
day. The first instalment of that debt of Love we pay.

And totally a new birth there and then will we immolate
ourselves over and over again till the hungry God of Sacrifice
be full and crown Thee with glory.

With Shree Krishna for Thy redoubtable Charioteer, and
Shree Ram to lead, and thirty crores of soldiers to fight under
Thy baimer.

Thy army stops not though we fall !

But pressing on shall utterly rout the forces of Evil and
Thy right hand. Oh Mother, shall plant the golden Baimer of
Righteousness on the trimnphant tops of the Himalayas.” ^

HI

The Indian Government prosecuted Savarkar post-haste. As
a matter of fact and on principle, the Special Tribunal should
have stayed the proceedings from September 25, 1910, as
Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary of the British

> Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans.

WORLD-FAMOUS TRIALS 81

Government, had signed an agreement with M. Paul Gambon,
the Ambassador of the French Republic, on that day and
ag reed to refer the Savarkar case to the International Court
at the Hague. This, of course, he had done because of
popular French clamour for justice to Savarkar and in
recognition of the sovereignty of France.

But this agreement was a result of a powerful agitation of
the people and the press. The sensational news of Savarkar’s
escape first appeared in a few lines in the Paris edition of the
Daily Mail of July 11. Savarkar’s colleagues, who had failed
in their attempts at rescuing Savarkar at Marseilles, wired
from Marseilles the news of the thrilling escape of their leader
to the L’Humanite, a Socialist newspaper in Paris, edited by
M. Jean Languet, the grandson of Karl Marx. He Hashed the
news of Savarkar’s escape on July 12. Pandit Shyamji,
Madame Cama and Ranaji lost no time in contacting the great
Socialist leader of France, Monsieur Jaures who was also
the Mayor of Marseilles and other French influential leaders.
M. Jaures took up the cause and voiced the demand for the
return of Savarkar to France. UEclaire, he Temps, he Matin
and all other national newspapers of France joined the attack
and a storm of protest reigned over France against the illegal
arrest of Savarkar on their soil. In England Guy A. Aldred,
the young editor of the Herald of Revolt, who was released in
July 1910, also raised a hue and cry for Savarkar’s release by
his incessant appeals, untiring speeches and a chain of articles
on behalf of ‘ the Savarkar Release Committee ’ which was
established in London in August 1910. Aldred stressed the
illegality and immorality of the warrant of the Indian Gov-
ernment and appealed to all freedom-loving citizens of the
world to demand Savarkar’s release. Embassies all over the
world, too, were stirred. Monsieur Pierron, Assistant Ambas-
sador of Spain, Monsieur Jambon, Assistant Ambassador of
Paraguay, and the Ambassador of Portugal at Calcutta
expressed their opinion that the French demand for Savarkar's
return to France was lawful. According to International Law
the stuxender of a fugitive must be a national act and not a
local act. This point was also hotly discussed in the French
Press. In short, “ Savarkar’s extraordinary heroism at
Marseilles was applauded by the impartial press of the world,

8

82 SAVARKAR AMO HIS TIMES

His whole career, his patriotic exploits in India and England
were recounted at great length everywhere,” ^ and almost all
Eiiropean press supported the French Press in its demand for
the retvurn of Savarkar to France. In view of these discussions
in the world press in general and the blaze of protest in the
French press in particular, the French Government at last
made a demand for the return of Savarkar to France.

The British Premier, Mr. Asquith, declared on July 29, 1910,
in the House of Commons that the French Government had
demanded the return of Savarkar. At the outset English
statesmen tried to hush up the matter, calling it their home
affair. Papers like the London Times opined that inter-
national law on the point was not authoritatively settled !

At this juncture Savarkar smuggled a statement of the
authentic accoimt of his escape and re-arrest at Marseilles
through the Yeravada Jail to his friends in Europe, and gave
a fresh impetus to the whole affair. The statement was
circulated throughout the world press, and a vigorous demand
was again put forward for Savarkar’s return to France. The
entire French press dememded with one voice the return of
Savarkar to France in vindication of the Right of Asylum.
The Socialist Conference of Europe in its Copenhagen Session
held in September 1910, demanded Savarkar’s return to
France, and as a result of this national and international pres-
sure the French Republic had to renew its demand for
Savarkar’s restoration in vindication of its sovereignty. And
at last the British Government had to yield.

Thereupon England’s Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey,
and M. Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador in London,
signed a six-articled agreement as related above, and
submitted to arbitration the question of Savarkar’s arrest at
Marseilles and return to the Republic. Articles 1, 2 and 3
deal with the duty, composition and working of the Arbitra-
tion Tribunal. The fourth article defines the place and
representation on the Tribunal and the fifth article lays down
that the proceedings of the Tribunal would be either in the
French or the English language and the decision in the two
languages. The sixth article defines the time limit.

The British opinion was not wholly on the side of its

^ Indulal Yajnik, Shyamaji Krishnavarma, p. 289.

WORLO'FAMOUS TRIALS 83

GovernmeLt in this affair. There were some voices of dissent.
Sir Henry Cotton, speaking at the residence of B. C. Pal at
a small gathering held in honour of the New Year, 1911, saw
Savarkar’s portrait in the halL He admired Savarkar’s
intellect, courage and patriotism, although he warned the
Indian youths not to waste their energy in that way. He then
openly appreciated Savarkar’s claim to the Right of Asylum
and expressed the hope that the British Government would
hand him over to France. There was a huge uproar against
Sir Henry Cotton. Some suggested to the British Govern-
ment to stop his pension and even revoke his knighthood !

From the first M. Briand, the Prime Minister of France, did
not act sincerely in this matter. Under fear of a powerful
and threatening Germany M. Briand looked upon England
as a friend. Naturally powerful nations like Germany and
Russia were dropped out from the panel of the Tribunal and
small nations were selected on it. The Hague International
Tribunal was composed of M. Beernaert, ex-Prime Minister
of Belgium as its President, M. Graham, an ex-Minister of
Norway, Mr. Jonkheer Loman, a Member of the Second
Chamber of Holland, England’s Earl of Desert and France’s
Louis Renault as its members. M. Louis Renault was an
eminent jurisconsult, an authority on international law, a
permanent Member of the Hague Tribunal and winner of the
Nobel Prize in 1907. This world-famous trial opened on
February 16, 1911, and though expected to last about a month
as stated in article six of the agreement, wound up its work
after a few hurried sittings. On February 24, 1911, they gave
judgment in favour of the British Government, “admitting
that an irregularity was committed in the arrest of Savarkar
and in his being handed over to the British Police.’’

The judgment was a shock to freedom-loving minds all over
the world. The Morning Post of Elngland, The Post in
Germany, the Daily News of England, described this Award
of the Hague Tribunal as something that reduced the “ Right
of Asylum ’’ and International Law to a farce. Vehemently
criticising this gross outrage on International Law, Guy A.
Aldred in his editorial in the Herald of Revolt of March 1911,
writes : “ Savarkar has been danmed to a life of sojourn in an
Indian dtmgeon by the infamy of a man who previously

M SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMIS

betrayed the French proletariat. But for the latter’s agita-
tion against the Hindu patriot’s irregxdar arrest at Marseilles
on July 8th last — and Briand’s fears of a general strike, — ^the
French Premier would never have invited the decision which
brought about his resignation three days later. The Hague
Award, annulling the Right of Asylum, was only possible
because Aristide Briand volimtarily betrayed the sovereignty
of France.” This gross violation of the Right of Asylum and
the grave injustice perpetrated on Savarkar were bitterly
criticised also by the La Soclete Nouvelle published at Mons
in Belgium. Its editorial in its issue of March 1912 said :
“ England’s infamous empire rests on blood, ferocious repres-
sion and officially acknowledged systematic tyranny.” Dora
Marsden, editor of The Freewoman, fearlessly attacked the
Hague Award and published Aldred’s vigorous article under
the title “ The Savarkar infamy.” A German fortnightly
published at Zurich, Switzerland, called Der Wanderer
editorially supported Aldred’s work in connection with
Savarkar’s case. Most of the British, German, American,
Italian and the entire French press condemned the Hague
judgment.^

The consequences of the Hague decision were enormous and
far-reaching. The betrayal by Briand was so grave and
ruinous that only three days after the Hague Award he resign-
ed rather than face the questions in the Chamber of Deputies.
On the day of this Hague decision the Russian Duma passed
a biU annulling the right of political asylum ! As a reward
for this marvellous blackmail in connection with Savarkar’s
case at the Hague, Mr. Eyre Alexander Crowe, an assistant
in the Foreign Affairs Office of Britain, was knighted in 1911.

The international issue in the Savarkar case was thus foully
settled. But the agitation for the release of Savarkar spon-
sored by Aldred and Pandit Shyamji went on imabated till
the outbreak of World War I when Aldred was imprisoned for
anti-war propaganda and Pandit Shyamji had to shift his
headquarters to Geneva. But during that period Pandit
Shyamji had spread the agitation all over Europe. It was

1 Guy A. Aldred, editor of The Word, Glasgow, quoted his articles from
his Herald of the Revolt and other extracts from different contem^rary
newspapers of Europe concerning Savarkar’s Case at the Hague in the
special Savarkar issue of The Word in April 1947.

WORLD'FAMOVS TRIALS 85

through the efforts of Pandit Shyamji that Professor F. M.
Zandrine, ofiScer of Public Instruction and a leading member
of the executive cotincil of the Federation of the Italian press
promised Monsieur Pierre Khorat, the biographer of Savarkar,
and Pandit Shyamji that the Italian Republican Party and
especially the Parliamentary group would agitate for the
release of Savarkar and accordingly in October 1912, the
Republican Party of Italy resolved in its meeting at Rome to
commence the agitation.^

Thus Savarkar’s was the greatest historical trial the world
has ever seen. The trial flashed India’s aspirations on the
front pages of world press. India’s manhood and valour were
indelibly imprinted on the pages of world history. The trial
also left an imprint of Savarkar’s personality on the Inter-
national Law and stamped on Marseilles the footprints of a
champion who heroically strove for the deliverance of a sup-
pressed nation. India was discussed for the first time in
international politics. Its impact was so great that its right-
eous pressure hastened the fall of the Premier of France, M.
Briand ! Such was the magnitude, such was the deathless
blow that Savarkar struck individually, nationally and inter-
nationally upon the British Empire !

In his introduction to Sri Ranade’s biography of Savarkar
the late Sri N. C. Kelkar states : “ The British Government
boasts of having bestowed on India a seat in the League of
Nations after the great war ; but it was already snatched and
confirmed for India by Savarkar, when he leapt from the
port-hole of the ship into the sea at Marseilles, and standing
on the soil of France challenged the nations of the world
‘ Speak out gentlemen, speak out ’ in the name of International
Law!”

IV

“ Did you recognise me ? ’The garments are different. I
am the same man. This prison dress also satisfies the basic
human want namely protection from cold. Providence will-
ing, we may meet again. If the affairs of life ever tempt you,
think for a while ! If life means giving birth and rearing

^Indulal Yajnik, Shyamaji Krishnavarma, pp. 304*5.

86 SAVARKAB ARB BIS TIMES

young ones, crows and sparrows also do the same in their
nests. But if you take a broader view of life, you wiU agree
that we have lived like men. We have extinguished the fire
in our kitchen so that some day the smoke of gold may come
out of thousands of homes.”

It is the great art of life to forget one’s own petty self, serve
others and seek their good. He is a Great Man who follows
his path with invincible resolution, who resists temptation
both from within and from without ; who bears the heavy
bmrdens cheerfully and who is cahn in storms and fearless
under frowns.

Mark the self-denial and self-control in the afore.said piece
of advice. Standing on the threshold of eternity, a young
man, who had been struck with a thunderbolt, was heroically
consoling his young wife. It was Savarkar, the hero of Indian
Independence. Government was kind enough to permit his
wife to interview him in the Dongri Jail, Bombay, in the
presence of a Jail Officer before he departed for the
Andamans. His wife’s grief was indescribable. Her soul was
wrung with agony. With the sublime courage of a Sati she
saw her rosy life put into a yawning grave. A sad inquiry
dwelt in her gaze and wavered on her lip. She had already
lost her baby son when her husband was in London. Saintly,
heroic, she stood speechless. Crushed with the heavy chains
and overflowed with feelings, Savarkar thus interpreted the
grandeur and gravity of the fate that had befallen her ! There
was no time for righteous sighs or sobs. The time for inter-
view ended. While parting Savarkar’s brother-in-law who
was also present there entreated him to recite every morning
a certain Mantra, and the scene vanished like a dream.

A week or so before this interview Savarkar was informed
in the Dongri Jail that the verdict of the International Court
at the Hague had gone against him and that the fifty years’
sentence now stood confirmed. He took off his civil dress and
gazed at the jail garments and the ticket to be borne on chest,
thinking that the dress he was putting on would either leave
him in 1960 or his corpse would come out with it. His property
was confiscated and even his books and dress were put to
auction. His spectacles were returned to him as a favour.
Such complete sacrifice in the cause of freedom was made

WORLD-FAMOUS TRIALS 87

hardly by any other man throughout India’s struggle for free-
dom. Someone sarcastically murmxured, “The kind Govern-
ment will release you in 1960.” With a smile Savarkar
replied, “ Death is more kind. If it delivers me earlier ? ”
Savarkar laughed consciously, the fool freely.

In order to bring the inhuman life sentence for half-a-cenhiry
under the pale of human laws, Savarkar appealed to Govern-
ment that the two transportations inflicted upon him should
run concurrently. For, a man has but one life. How can he
have two life sentences then ? But his application was
rejected. The officer who conveyed this decision to him said
with mixed feelings of humour and sympathy that the Govern-
ment desired him to undergo the sentence for the next life
also during this lifetime. Savarkar then exclaimed : “ Then
the good thing about this is that the Government has at least
rejected the Christian belief in resurrection and accepted the
Hindu doctrine of re-birth ! This is not a small gam ! ”

The furnace of tribulations was lit. The first task that was
assigned to Savarkar was the chopping of cocoanut shells. He
writhed with pain. But his mind took a philosophical turn
and interpreted the chopping of the shells as the chopping of
the fragments out of the elements of life and twisting them
into one whole. “ In its process, the compound of life develops
to its full size and again dissolves into many fragments return-
ing to the original elements from which it emanates.”

Ordinarily the very idea of the terrific sentence for half-a-
century would have crushed even the stoutest heart. But it
was Savarkar’s motto that enabled him to bear heroically the
colossal shock ! His motto was : “ Don’t be too much hopeful
of success. Be always prepared for the worst possible
reverses ! For those who are born in an age of despair and
darkness must be prepared to face the grim struggle with the
possibility of reverses, if they aspire for the dawn of a new
era.

To cope with the titanic term of two transportations he
thought out an equally august plan. In order to pay the debt
of the Motherland and render service to humanity, he made
up his mind to compose an epic, write it on the canvas of his
mind and dedicate it to the Motherland through his would-
be sons, if he was ever allowed to settle according to the jail

88 SAVARRAR AND HXS TIMES

rtiles with his wife on the island, or in any other way. This
was the bare minimum that he could do in his hopeless, help-
less state. He had no pen, no paper, no light, no lamp.

Savarkar started in right earnest to compose his poetry.
The first poem he composed was on Guru Govind Singh, the
sire of martyrdom. According to Savarkar Great Men with
great success shine like the golden domes of great palaces ;
but the foundation that holds the pillars and domes lies
buried under the ground. Guru Govind Singh, who fell in a
great cause dejected, betrayed and deserted, was more heroic
and appealing than any other hero in the eyes of Savarkar
who had also met with the Guru’s fate !

Savarkar then composed another poem on the crucified
Christ whose divine personage submitted himself to torture
and sacrifice and showed considerable physical fortitude in
going through the cruel ordeal for his divine mission.
Although an advocate of the doctrine of ‘ protection of the
good and destruction of the evil-doer,’ he held in high
reverence the glorious martyrdom of Jesus Christ.

Savarkar’s heroism had thrilled both the hemispheres with
his epic adventure. Evu*opean countries hailed him as a
martyr, but he now happened to read the Anglo-Indian papers
who stigmatized him as a ‘ rascal ’ ! Did not the predecessors
of these pirates similarly describe in London papers
Washington in 1780 and Napoleon in 1803 ? ’ But Savarkar
took both the remarks in good hiunour. He equated the jeers
with the tears, the rascality from the pen of pirates and pedlars
with the glory of martyrdom, and found his individual worth
unchanged. The man who stands upon his own conscience
and character cares not for praise or censm-e. However,
Savarkar said to himself that a public servant should be ever
prepared both for applause and censure.

From the Dongri Jail Savarkar was shifted to the BycuUa
Jail. Savarkar inquired of the sergeant in charge about the
name of the jail. Being afraid to pass on the information the
sergeant spelt the word Byculla and obliged Savarkar. So
strict were the orders governing Savarkar’s movements !
Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to the Thana Jail.
Normally warders, havaldars and petty officers cherished in

I Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan (Introduction) .

WORLD-FAMOUS TRIALS 89

their heart of heaiis a very high respect for him. They felt
for his colossal ruin. One of the petty oflBcers in the jail
taTxntmgly remarked that Savarkar would be definitely set
free in the year 1960. Savarkar silenced the twitters of the
small fry when he asked him, “ But is the British Rule itself
going to last for fifty years more ? ” The petty officer deified
the leonine courage of Savarkar and was proud to be his slave.
He did Savarkar a good turn. At dead of night he brought
the first note of cheer from Narayanrao Savarkar, then a boy
of seventeen, serving a sentence of six months in the Thana
Jail. Commenting on his dark future Savarkar brushed over
the dark canvas of the Andamans and wrote in reply that he
hoped he would at least dedicate an epic to the Motherland
during the term of his transportation.

The day of Savarkar’s final departure for the Andamans
soon dawned. Escorted by a squad of armed guards, batches
of convicts on transportation reached the Thana Jail from all
comers of the Province. Some frightful, some fearless, some
tearful, some helpless, some reckless and some repentant, they
were specimens of heartless murderers, meanest brutes, daring
cutthroats and criminals of every description. But this
strange type of humanity conceived a sort of awe and
reverence for Savarkar, the Barrister convict. As a mark of
goodness and respect they even went to bed rather early to
enable the Barrister Babu to have a soimd sleep. Their
attitude was natural. For it is a notable fact that convicts
and prisoners have always a high regard for a barrister. They
know he is a man who shelters their crimes and sins under
the shield of his intelligence or shatters the web of the villainy
of those devils !

The march to the Andamans began. With a kurta, a small
pot, an iron plate in one hand, blanket and a mattress under
one armpit, Savarkar walked with his hand roped to that of
a European officer. Seeing the special care taken by the
officers of Savarkar, the convicts said with a proud note that
the Government feared him ! In spite of the utmost secrecy
observed, the news of Savarkar’s departure leaked out and
anxious faces were on the lookout in the streets of Thana for

90 SAVARKAB AND BIS TIMES

a glimpse of the world-famous Indian pmtriot. At the Thana
station Europeans took their ladies upon their shoulders to
enable them to catch a glimpse of the distinguished prisoner !
Savarkar, in handcuffs and irons, was seated in a special
compartment and his hand was tied to that of a stout officer.
And the train steamed out for Madras.

One officer, travelling in the same train, took a look at
Savarkar at every halt. At last, at Madras he came up to
Savarkar to bid him adieu. In a moving tone he said :
“ Good-bye friend, I hope you will be released in December
at the time of the Delhi Durbar.” Savarkar thanked him for
his good wishes and said : “ I don’t think so. Our blows on
the Government are quite fresh. They will not be forgotten
so soon.” “ All the same,” the Officer continued : “ I will
never forget this your dignified courage.” It was a wrong
impression prevailing among the Britishers that Savarkar
was ungentlemanly, insolent and a dangerous man. They
imagined that the presence of a Briton infuriated him.
Savarkar, however, corrected their wrong notion with his
gentle speeches. He said he never hated anybody simply
because he was an Englishman or a Mohammedan. He
returned smile for smile, thanks for good wishes and scorn for
scorn ! !

On reaching Madras Savarkar was taken to a steamer in a
small special boat, ■which was well guarded. While in the
boat, one officer tried to pump out some information from him
concerning the assassination of Mr. Ashe, the Collector of
Tinnevelly, Savarkar had come to know about it in the
Thana Jail. But the officer wanted him to comment or
criticise his statements. So he said : “ In the province of

Madras there are no thoughtless youths and so it is all quiet
here.” Savarkar with an implied smile asked him whether
he was sure about the statement he made. And the officer
understood it all !

On June 27, 1911, Savarkar was lodged in the steamer the
B.S. MAHARAJAH. He was put on the lower dark deck in the
iron cages meant for the convicts. Would he ever again see
his Motherland or die the fate of the Russian exiles in Siberia,

WORLD-FAMOUS TRIALS 91

thought Siivarkar to himself. But his thoughts were inter-
rupted. The engine roared. The steamer whistled ! His
voyage to the Devil’s Island began. A terrific shock came to
him. For his was the fate of a defeated Washington ! Sur-
rounded by the shabby and vile, wild and wicked men, fed
on loathsome food, lying beside a cask used as water closet,
he was overwhelmed by a feeling of nausea. He was stifled
and only the philosophical bent of his mind came to his re.scue.
It said, “ It is nothing. Food turns into stool and stool into
manure and manure into food again. Then the food and stool
are in reality not dissimilar.” However, on application, the
kind medical officer gave him the advanlage of a ventilation
hole to breathe more freely without worsening the malignant
ashtma he had contracted in London.

For a while even the invincible mind of Savarkar was over-
whelmed with a feeling of despair, sorrow and separation. A
human heart after aU ! His mind took flight from the limited
‘ I ’ to the unlimited universe and the elements ! He looked
at the endless stretches of seas. He wondered at the fate of
man when compared with the infinite vastness of the oceans
and the universe. He said to himself : “ Man has been dream-
ing of a good future ever since the dawn of the Vedas. And
a dream is nothing but a flash of light in the pitchy darkness
of the present.” He exclaimed that it would be the greatest
day in the history of mankind when the sun would witness
the millennium and the real Golden Age where man loved
his brother and gave up lust. Absorbed in such exalted
thoughts, Savarkar came to the end of the journey.

It was the morning of July 4, 1911. A shimmer of golden
sun was shaking through the trees and was giving life and
hope to the denizens in the dreaded Indian Bastille, the
Andamans ! The steamer had anchored at Port Blair, the
capital of the Andamans. The terrific jaws of the jail opened.
The steamer was the threshold of life and death. One crossed
it, and stepped into the yawning deathland. As they crossed
the gate of the jail, the convicts quailed with their blankets
overhead and plates in their hands. Savarkar was absorbed
in great thoughts while going his way to the jail. With the
ambition of a patriot, the vision of a poet and the foresight

92 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

of a prophet, he was engrossed in assessing the importance
of the Andamans. Given proper opportunities of develop-
ment, he murmured to himself, these islands could be the
outposts of Free Hindusthan replacing Singapore which was
so by accident. They would be the gateway of India on the
East. If a strong naval base were built there, he thought, no
enemy could strike at the Eastern coast of India ! And how
prophetic ! The islands have become important naval bases
during the present decade.

CHAPTER VI

The Indian Bastille

I

With a blanket on his head and a platter in one hand,
Savarkar stood in chains before the ferocious lofty gates deco-
rated with all kinds of chains, hand-cuffs, fetters, guns and
bayonets. The gate creaked ! Someone whispered that
Mr. Barrie was coming on. Savarkar was preoccupied and
was not conscious of Barrie’s arrival. A voice roared, “ Leave
him. He is not a tiger ! ” The harsh voice waked Savarkar
up. Turning to Savarkar the jailer opened conversation with
him.

Babrie : Are you the same man that tried to escape at
Marseilles ?

Savarkar : Yes, why ?

Barrie : Why did you do it ?

Savarkar : For some reasons. One of them was to free
myself from these hardships.

Barrie : But you fell into them of your own accord, is it
not ?

Savarkar : True. I threw myself into them. Just so, I
thought it my duty to escape from all these tribulations.

Barrie : To tell the truth, I am not an Englishman. I am
an Irishman.

Savarkar : May be. Had you been an Englishman, it
would have mattered little. I would not hate you because
you were an Englishman. I have spent the best part of
my youth in England and I am a warm admirer of many
virtues of Englishmen.

Barrie : But the point is that I was an Irish revolutionary
and fought for the independence of Ireland. Now I see
the futility of it. Hence as a friend I may tell you that
you are still yoimg and I am advanced in age. . . .

Savarkar {cutting him short) : And don’t you think that
perhaps that may be the reason of the change that has

94

SAVABKAB AND HIS TIMES

come over you ? Not increasing wisdom but dwindling
energy !

Babbie {scandalized) : You see, you are a barrister and I
am a mere jailer. Don’t discard my advice. Murders are
murders and they will never bring independence.

Savarkar : Quite so ; but why don’t you try your advice
on the Sinn Feincrs ? And who told you that I was a
party to violence ?

Barrie {suddenly assuming his official tone) : What I
talked is against the rules. It pained me to see a youth
of your great learning and fame among these criminals.
I have nothing to do with your past. Mind well you are
to abide by the rules. Their breach will bring on its
penalty. One thing more. I may inform you that any
attempt on your part at escaping from this island will
be a feast to cannibals.

Savaiucar : I know Port Blair is not Marseilles !

And so ended the first passage at arms between Mr. Barrie
and Savarkar.

This Barrie had attained a marvellous notoriety among
the criminals and political prisoners of India. Violent, fero-
cious, and stupid, he was a pot-bellied, bulky, red-skinned
fellow with round staring eyes, fierce moustache, flat nose,
short neck and carried a big staff in his hand. No other
mediocre official ever lived long in the memory of the prisoners
in the Andamans as Barrie did for the atrocities he
perpetrated in his officied capacity as the jailer of the Indian
Bastille. Half-ilhterate, full-blown coward, he lustily loved
authority for which he fawned on his superiors and with
which he tyrannised the convicts. Ignorant of intellectual
pursuits his pastime was cruelty. His manner and tone ex-
pressed instinctive hatred for political prisoners. He loved
self-praise immensely and sometimes displayed his learning
which of course consisted of a few lines of poetry and some
extracts to evoke a good remark from Savarkar. His poor
wife and educated daughter often emptied the vials of his
villainy and the Christmas days reminded the Christian jailer
at least not to return evil for good !

Savarkar fearlessly entered the ferocious jaws of the
Deathland as the early Christian martyrs faced the lions in

THB INDIAN BASTILLS

95

the Coliseum of the Romans. He started his life in the Anda-
mans with a salt-water bath which began and ended with
the brays of the Jamadar. Then he was locked in a cell on
the third floor of the yard No. 7 of the Cellular JaiL The
whole floor of yard No. 7 was vacated for him. The most
wicked and vicious Pathans drilled in the methods of tor-
turous jail administration were posted to guard his cell. It
had been a part of the policy of the British bureaucracy to
utilize whenever possible the fanatic Muslim mind against
the Hindu forces and fighters. At every major crisis, at every
decisive event, they gave full reins to their instinctive anti-
Hindu bent of mind to frustrate the plans of the Hindu leaders
or torture the Hindu agitators. History is replete with such
instances.

It is the characteristic of a great life that it is ever full of
duties and sacrifices. The soul that suffers gets stronger and
sober. The soul of a Great Man never stands still. For Great
Men are the heart of humanity. Their work never ceases
for a single second until the day of death. The proverbs that
no pains, no gains and no gall, no glory are undying. After a
deed of deathless virtue, Savarkar was also thrown into the
furnace of tribulations. The more the gold burns, the brighter
it shines, and greater the number of clouds, the more dazzling
is the splendour of the sun when he breaks forth.

Love of one’s own country or humanity, if from within, is
sublime and enduring. Patriotism or service of humanity,
if from without, fades and withers. The former originates
from a devotion to human progress or a belief in the sanctity
of human life. The latter springs from immoral and foul
personal ambition. Courage and spirit of self-sacrifice perpe-
tuate true love, and self and pelf scandalize the untrue love.
Savarkar belongs to the first heroic line of selfless patriots
who belong not to one particular countiy but to the whole
world. Savarkar was a pioneer in this line, and pioneers
idealize the real 'and the successors realize the ideal.

Savarkar’s arrival deeply stirred the whole of the Anda-
mans. There was a feeling of change, freshness and life in
the Andamans. To have a talk or a look at Savarkar, the
world-famous revolutionary leader, visits of foreigners and

96

SAVARKAR AMO HIS TIMES

guests became a common feature in the Andamans. Ocean-
going steamers, warships, mercantile ships would sojourn to
give leisure to their men of authority or fame to have a talk
with the illustrious Indian prisoner. They even humbly
caioled Mr. Barrie for permitting them to have a look at
Savarkar. Next morning after Savarkar’s arrival the Pathan
warder annoxmced the coming of Mr. Barrie. Barrie appeared
with his usual staff in hand, accompanied by a guest. He
opened the conversation with a reference to 1857.

Barrie being struck dumb on all points his guest interfered,
and said to Savarkar : “ But don’t you condemn the self-
centred rebels like Nana and Tatya Tope ? ” “ Condemn ?

You see, I am a prisoner. I can’t freely discuss these points
here. If you stop me in the middle and try to lower the pres-
tige and honour of my nation, it will be a sheer act of
cowardice,” replied Savarkar with a distinct note in his voice.
Barrie granted Savarkar’s request and allowed him to discuss
freely. “ I know,” said Savarkar, “ You are feeling the
embers. This is a discussion on vital points in history and I
will do it freely at any cost. It is sheer cowardice to bear
silently vile attacks on one’s national honour.” He proceeded,

“ The Government had appointed a committee to investigate
the so-called atrocities of this nature. It pronounced its
verdict ‘ that those descriptions were baseless ’ and were
invented by the wily brains of the British soldiers.” The
flame of righteous pride in Savarkar’s heart was fanned. The
hero was justifying the deeds of heroes. With a rise in his
voice he said, “ You describe Nana Sahib and Tatya Tope as
self-seekers. For, Nana wanted to be king and Tatya wanted
to attain glory. But is it not also true that Victor Emmanuel
wanted to be King, Washington had an eye to the president-
ship and Garibaldi craved for greatness ? The fact is that
they all fought for their national independence. None should
decry them. And as for the massacres at Cawnpore, they
were an answer to the terrible atrocities and the wholesale
burning of villages committed by the British troops approach-
ing Cawnpore.” Barrie’s guest was silenced. The conversa-
tion ended.

Before Savarkar’s arrival the revolutionaries of Maniktola
case, Savarkar’s brother Babarao with Wamanrao Joshi, some

THE INDIAN BASTILLE 97

editors from Allahabad and some other political prisoners
were rotting in the cellular jail of the Andamans. Out of the
first group three had received sentences for life transportation
for having waged war against the King Emperor and others
were short-termed prisoners. Defeated valiant fighters of
‘ 1857 ’ were the first and foremost champions to face the
hellish fire of the Andamans. Stricken in age, one of the
sxirviving warriors of ‘ 1857 ’ congratulated Savarkar on his
having continued the War of Independence. After the heroes
of ‘ 1857 ’ came the fighters of Wasudeo Balv/ant. Thus the
sacrificial fire was kept burning from 1857 to 1910 in the
Andamans and continued to do so by patriots and martyrs
who were transported to the Andamans in subsequent years.

The coming of Savarkar brought better days for the political
prisoners in particular and convicts in general. Hitherto no
discrimination was made there between political and ordinary
prisoners. Barrie and his fawning dogs ran amock. Barrie’s
word was law, his dogs’ barkings were its arms. A man of
little education, Barrie compensated for his inferiority complex
by his harsh voice, bullying nature, crooked ways, and dull
wits. His rough life had taken off the edge of his sense so much
so that he utterly failed to distinguish between truth and
falsehood. In his zest to rule the convicts with a heavy hand
he proved to be worse than the English officials. Indeed the
hot sand is more scorching than the sun itself. He called the
revolutionaries bombthrowers, damned rascals and put the
letter ‘ D ’ around their neck describing them as “ dangerous ”
characters ! His attitude towards the ordinary convicts was
lenient, but towards revolutionaries inexorably severe. He
violently abused the prisoners in general and causelessly
harassed them. Even with this sort of harassment, uptU now
the political prisoners had failed in giving a united fight to
curb the unjust rule of Barrie. Their condition was very
miserable.

The revolutionaries had to undergo unbearable physical
tortures. They were yoked to the oil-mill. And the working
on the oil-mill demanded such hard labour that it squeezed
the life out of even the hardened and seasoned convicts, and
they trembled at its sight. The oil-miU was, therefore, aptly
regarded as the friend of suicide. Prisoners had to turn its

98 SAVARKAR AND HIS TZMBS

handle horizontally for hours together without even a slight
break. They had to take their meals and drink water, while
the oil-mill was in motion lest the quota of the oil might fall
far below the expectation. But even with such hard labour
full measure of the required quota could never be fulfilled
by even the strongest prisoner. Their hands bled, hearts
ached, heads whirled. They fell in dead faints. When they
revived, round and round they had to go again in excruciat-
ing agony. Prisoners were sent to water closets in a file of
eight or ten and they had to rush out without finishing the
natural functions at the whim of the warder or were dragged
out in that state too. It was an offence to answer the call
of nature except during the scheduled time of morning, noon
and evening. If any political prisoner felt the necessity to do
so at odd hours, he did it in his cell in the small pot or on
the walls of his cell and bribed the scavenger with a pinch of
tobacco to get it cleared or else he was punished for this
unavoidable natural call by being put into standing-handcuffs
from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 12 noon to 5 p.m. During
these punishment hours if he could not check his natural calls,
he would answer them in that hanging condition. Political
prisoners were not given as much leisure or rest as is given
even to the beasts of burden for answering nature’s calls or
other natural functions. Educated persons were used as beasts
of burden and illiterate persons were given clerical work.
Pathans, warders and petty officers gulped down the .share of
the prisoners’ food and milk. What is more, the doctors
followed the diagnosis of the jailer !

The right of writing letters home was deprived even if any
prisoner broke the file at the time of meals, or talked with
his neighbour. Prisoners were forced to take their meals in
soaking rains or in the scorching sim. The duration of time
for meals depended not on the clock, but on the crowing of
the warder. None could ask for more food, nor eat less. If
surplus was thrown away, the prisoner was made to bring it
back and eat it up !

Sometimes the prisoners had to drink water with a squeez
on their noses. So dirty was its smell. Some political
prisoners were made to do odd jobs at the residence of the
officers, to clean streets and to draw carts of the officers. To

THE INDIAN BASTILLE

99

relieve taemselves from the insufferable hard labour prisoners
ate some harmful herbs or took some other drastic medicine
that brought on diarrhoea or vomits of blood or high fever.
Some pretended stark madness covering their faces even with
stools. Their last refuge was suicide, the sure guide, friend
and saviour, a consummation devoutly to be wished ! Thus it
will be seen that cellular jail machine was more soulless and
dreadful, more devilish and dehumanising than any other
terrific jail machine under the sun of Bastille notoriety or the
Fortress of Peter and Paul in Czarist Russia of evil name.

Writing about this prison life, Savarkar said : “ Life in a
jail for good, for evil, is a unique chance. Man can never go
out of it exactly as he came in. He goes out far better or far
worse. Either more angelic or more fiendish. Fortunately
for me, my mind has so quickly adapted itself to the changes
in circumstances. It seems so strange that a nature so restless
and active, roaming over continents, should so quickly feel
quite at home in a cell hardly a dozen feet in length. And yet
one of the kindest gifts of Providence to Humanity is this
plasticity, this adaptability of the human mind to the ever
changing environments of life.” * To become your own friend
you must retire into your own inner self and cultivate the
friendship of the conscience, the God in you. A yogin in
action can exercise such a tremendous control over his senses.
Savarkar had conquered his senses and acclimatized himself
to the new change. His mind climbed the tower of human
imagination and saw the vastness of the universe dissolving
its identity into Him. “ When early in the morning and late
in the evening,” he wrote from the cellular jail, “ I try a bit
of Pranayam and then pass insensibly into a sweet sound sleep
— Oh how calm and quiet is that rest, so calm that when I get
up in the morning, it is long before I can realize again that
I am in a prison cell lying on a wooden plank. All the
conunon aims and allurements of mankind having receded
far, the conscience is perfectly pleased with itself with the
conviction of having served under His Banner and served
to some purpose. A calm, sweet equanimity is left with my
soul and it lulls my mind in an intense peace.” ^

J Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 18.

•Ibid., p. 18.

100 SAVASKAR AND HIS TIMES

Here is a lively description of the daily life in the Cellular
jail in Savarkar’s words. “ I get up in the morning when
the bell goes on at 5 a.m. At its sound I feel as if I had
entered a higher college for a higher study. Then we do our
work of rigour till 10 a.m. While my hands and feet are
automatically doing the given task, my spirit avoiding all
detection is out for a morning trip, and across the seas and
oceans, over hills and dales, it roams sipping only pleasant
things and things noble, like a bee among flowers. Then I
compose some new lines. Then we dine and at 12 noon
work again. From 4 p.m. comes rest, reading, etc. This is
the usual round of life here.” The master artist in Savarkar
further described the vivid picture in a Voltarian satire. He
added : ” In a prison what happens on the first day, happens
always, if nothing worse happens. In fact, it seems to be the
essence of prison discipline to avoid all novelty, all change.
Like specimens and curios in a museum, here we are each
exactly in the same place and same position, belted and
labelled with the same numbers with more or less dust about
us. . . . We get up early, work hard, eat pimctually at the
same place and the same amount and kind of food prepared
with the same matchless prison skill and medical care.”
He concluded : “ Almost every night, I tell you, I break the
jail and out by dale and down and by tower and town go on
romping till I find some one of you — some one who somewhere
had been held close to my bosom ! Every night I do it but
my beneficent jailers take no notice of it. You have only
to wake up in the jail, that is all they say ! ” * Solitary
monotony for twelve years in a cell ! This is a clue to the
introversion that clung to Savarkar in later life and made him
disinclined to mix freely with people and personalities.

II

For the first fortnight Savarkar was closed in a solitary
cell. Then he was given the work of chopping the barks of
cocoanuts with a heavy wooden mallet. His hands bled,
swelled, ached and the coir was blistered with blood. In order
to frighten Savarkar into submissiveness, Barrie displayed the
wrath of his power by reviling his co-sufferers in his presence.

1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 39.

THE INDIAN BASTILLE 101

Barrie’s one aim was to impress upon Savarkar that he was
not a political prisoner, but an ordinary criminal. The jailer
always tried to dishearten and frighten him by riveting his
eyes to the ticket on his breast showing imprisonment for half
a century. But with cdl his resourcefulness Barrie could not
overpower or overawe Savarkar. His personality, his fame
and his courage had outgrown the pale of Barrie’s mind, men
and power.

The case of other political prisoners was quite different.
With sunken heads they bore humiliations and were mortally
wounded in their feelings, when Barrie spurred them with
loathing. Savarkar consoled his co-sufferers and breathed
life into them. He cheered them. He said that though they
were helpless in those days, yet a day would dawn when
statues would be erected to their memory in the very jail.
Future generations would make a pilgrimage to that place
saying, “ Here dwelt for years the patriots of our land, the
flesh of our flesh, the spirit of our spirit that fell in the cause
of freedom.” He added that their sufferings, their wounds
and their struggle would be fruitful in the end.

And thirty-two years later Nctaji Subhas Bose of the Indian
National Army hoisted over Port Blair the flag of indepen-
dence on December 30, 1943, honoured the memory of the
Indicin revolutionaries by saluting the cellular jail and re-
named Andamans as “ Shaheed Island ” in memory of the
martyrs. The wheel of destiny had turned. In a press
interview in November 1943, Netaji said : “ Most of the
political prisoners sentenced to penal servitude for conspiracies
to overthrow the British Government, — and there have been
hxmdreds of them, — ^were locked up in this Island. Like the
Bastille in Paris, which was liberated first during the French
Revolution, setting free political prisoners, the Andamans,
where our patriots suffered much is the first to be liberated in
India’s fight for independence.” ’ Savarkar’s prophecy came
true to a letter !

Subhas Bose was not a degenerated man to disparage the
noblest sacrifice of the heroes of the Andamans. He knew
that their prison life had only one class. That was facing
death in every form at every moment. Not fruits but frowns,

* Jat Hind, published by Amritlal Prabhashankar, p. 74.

102

BAVARRAll AKO HIS TIMES

not cosy beds but wooden planks galled them. There they
rolled in dark, damp, dirty, dingy cells. Every hour of theirs
they passed in moving, mournful and moanful misery. Their
food was half-cooked, soiled, filled with drops of sweat and
often seasoned with pieces of reptiles or white dead worms.
They toiled like horses and worked as bullocks ! The climate
sapped their vitality and life. Under the strain and stress of
extreme physical rigours some of them showed signs of mental
aberration and collapsed into insanity. They underwent these
poignant trials for the very liberation of their Motherland.
Had they worked safely enough to save their skin, had they
loved a life of peace, pelf and position, they would have attain-
ed it easily for some of them were sufficiently rich or eminently
gifted with rich brains. Subhas knew this and so he honoured
them first.

In the middle of August 1911, Savarkar was yoked to the
oil-mill, the hardest task, the greatest test and the severest
pain the cellular life witnessed. The jail superintendent called
Savarkar and said he would not give him that work again
if he did it for two weeks. This severest turn of dealing with
prisoners was a result of the strong remarks of an officer from
Calcutta, the then Capital of the Government of India, to the
effect that the prisoners in the Andamans were treated
considerately. That visit gave a handle to Barrie to play
havoc in the Andamans. Barrie deliberately reminded
Savarkar of the fifty years’ rigorous sentence and promised
him help if he did not refuse to do the work. Heartless as he
was, he unkindly remarked that Savarkar was promoted from
Coir to Kolu — the oil-mill ! This promotion or rise in the
status, curiously enough, was upheld by the Bombay Univer-
sity which informed Savarkar only a day before he was
harnessed to the oil-mill that his B.A. degree was cancelled.
There was nothing strange that a University in a slave
country should kill its child for its own exi.stence.

As for the remembrance of 50 years’ imprisonment Savarkar
was used to it now, as an artillery soldier is used to the
terrific booming.

The barrister thus began to move around the oil-mill like
a bullock. His body ached, muscles writhed with pain,
stomach turned and mouth parched, for the prisoner was not

THE INDIAN BASTlIiLE 103

even given more than a certain quantity of water. Moved by
the sight, some political prisoners helped him secretly. There
was even healthy rivalry among them for washing his clothes
secretly. Savarkar was overwhelmed with their feelings. In
turn he would sometimes wash their clothes without their
knowledge and they sincerely entreated him not to do so.

Savarkar felt that his great powers that would have enriched
the destiny of the country were wasting away. Disgustful
of dying a slow, painful death, and that too unobserved, his
mind drove him to the thought of suicide. In such a state
suicide becomes a deed of self-respect ! For a while he was
fascinated with the idea and greedily looked to the upper side
of the window of the cell from where many mounted on to
heaven by means of rags tightened to their necks ! Dusty
and deadly fatigued, one day he reeled against the vrall sur-
rounding the oil-mill and fell in a faint. When he revived,
things around him became gradually visible and intelligible
to him one by one ; he knew by and by who and where he
was, and he picked himself up with great effort for work !
For some time mind routed reason. Defeated reason again
joined battle. It said, “ What an ego ! You never craved
for name, fame and glory. You wished to suffer most for
humanity. You attained it. What of your abilities and
intelligence ! There was a time when there were no
Himalayas ; there will be a time when they will not be there.
Even the sun in the universe has an unsteady position. He
will be pricked one day like a bubble and still the universe
will go on. Therefore, if you want to die, do not die a cowardly
death by suicide, but die valiantly.” ' Reason inspired
courage into the mind and it plumed its feathers, soaring, and
singing again.

The first secret note Savarkar got was from Hotilal Varma.
The note dashed against the inside wall of the cell with a
stone. The sound occasioned a great hubub. Warders from
below ran upstairs and searched Savarkar and his cell, but
in vain. When they were gone, he took it out from the
innermost delicate part of the body and read it ! In it
Hotilalji had informed Savarkar that there was a division
among the Bengali revolutionaries. It was a fact that some

1 Savarkar, Mazi Janmathep, p. 131.

IM SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

of them could not stand the sufferings and turned informants
and lackeys. In others the conscience was not yet dead. They
told their colleagues to put an end to their lives since life
had been made impossible for them due to severe agonies.
Savarkar felt sympathy for the past services and sacrifices of
those heroic souls who had turned informants. Their tortured
body became untrue to their faith and trampled upon the soul.
Yet, he held that none had the right to criticise them but
those who had suffered more than they. Those who decided
to live under any circumstances avoided tortures by being
lackeys and spies of Barrie. Those who despised a life of
dishonour preferred death to living as traitors to the cause
and the country. There were few who considered life worth
living till it did not go against their principles.

m

Savarkai resolved to resort to agitation within the four
corners of law in the Andamans to secure the privileges of
political prisoners for his comrades and to compel the jail
authorities to give physical and cultural amenities to political
prisoners. With that aim in view he first devoted his mind
to the education of the political prisoners. The revolutionaries
were all youtlis. Some of them had chosen this life owing
to their daring, noble and selfless disposition. Some of them
had vague and hazy notions about the fundamental principles
of the revolutionary struggle, its aims and its methods.
Savarkar decided to driU and steel them in those fundamentals
which gave them a solid base of knowledge of Political
science, of Economics, and of Constitutional Law. The contact
began at the oil-mill, or at the work of chopping the bark.
Besides, education was imparted through the top of the
windows and holes at the bottom of the walls of the cells;
on the occasion of transfer of cells, going to and coming from
the jail office and through a secret service of private notes.

This movement needed books. And books were a red rag
to Barrie. On Sundays prisoners got books. Every evening
they also got books, but each his own. Exchange of books
was dealt vdth seriously. For this breach of discipline
offenders would hang in hand-cuffs for a period of four days.

THE INDIAN BASTILLE 105

The chief obstacle in the way was Barrie’s terrible ignorance
and his loathing for books. To his ignorant mind books
containing words like “ nation,” “ coxintry ” “ patriotism ”,
drove men to acts of violence. And books on theosophy, he
held, made them mad ! Barrie, perhaps, forgave a prisoner
for any trifling offence or a glaring breach, but never did he
tolerate the sight of a book or a slate ! Savarkar cheered his
co-sufferers by telling them the stories of heroes from the
mythology and history. In jail not a scrap of paper was
tolerated. A tiny piece of lead hidden in hair or in the cavity
of mouth would amount to a crime and would bring severe
punishment. The cell of Savarkar was raided even twic2 or
thrice a week during the first six or seven years. Illegible
writing on the walls was considered a wilful damage to Gov-
ernment property.

The task of educating his co-prisoners was difficult. At the
beginning even the educated prisoners treated this new move
with scant respect cind the illiterate fled from it. Pointing
out the then confusion in New China due to want of constitu-
tioned experts, and the disorderliness in new Iran for want of
economists and accountants, Savarkar impressed upon the
revolutionaries that for conducting a Government efficiently
they should also have Gokhales, Dutts or Sir Madhavraos
among them having mastery over the knowledge of Constitu-
tional Law, Science of Economics and Politics. In their
present lot they could do nothing better than store this
knowledge in order to equip themselves better for the future
work, struggle and action, as some of them were short-termed
prisoners and would soon be free. For Savarkar held that
knowledge without action was lame and action without
knowledge was bhnd. To him knowledge that did not issue
in any tangible action was like a tree without fruit !

Savarkar fought out the problem of books despite the opposi-
tion of Barrie and ultimately secured the Superintendent’s
permission to store books. It was mutually arranged that
every prisoner should ask his relative to send books at a
particular time so that every month they received a parcel of
new books. Still Barrie would have his say. He blackened
some pages or tore away those pages of the books which he
considered objectionable. *1116 idea of a library appealed to

106 SAVARKAR AMD BIS TIMES

European officers also and they deposited their books in the
library. Some prisoners were entrusted with the work of
maintaining the library. At first the criminals avoided Bade
Babu’s (as Savarkar was called by them) literacy campaign.
Soon some of them saw its utility and joined ; others who fled
from him were sometimes awarded scholarships, in the
currency of the Andamans, a pinch of tobacco, and were won
over. The effect was visible. Many completed some course
and were appointed Munshis — clerks. Criminals abated in
their fury and became more docile. They read religious books
with great devotion. Many leaimt to read papers and when
they could do so their joy knew no bounds !

V/ith the growth of the literacy movement the library also
began to gicw. It swelled with complete works of Spencer,
Shakespeare, Mill, Vivekananda, Ramkrishna ; great works of
Gibbon, Emerson, Macaulay, Carlyle, Tolstoy, Nietszche,
Rousseau, Voltaire and Tagore. The Library also contained
Plato's Rrptihlic, Thomas Moor’s Utopia, Rousseau’s Contract,
Wilson’s State, works of Great Mahratta and Bengali Poets ;
Bengali, Hindi, Marathi Weeklies and Monthlies ; Modern
Review and Indian Review’. It was in the Andamans that
Savarkar drank deep at the fountain of Bengali literature.
Though he b.ad composed a poem on the Nobel Prizeman,
Ral)indranath Tagore, he was of opinion that Bankimchandra,
Roy and Madhusudan were equally great in sweep, imagina-
tion and rhythm.

But the books that appealed to him most were Yogavashistha
and the Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis. The spell of
the latter was so irresistible that he gladly received it as a
gift from a European officer on his return journey from the
Indian Bastille. The energy and patience of Savarkar were
inexhaustible ! Savarkar taught the criminals and his
colleagues with the endurance, insistence and love of a loving
teacher. To some of the dull criminals he had to give the
alphabetic lesson for over twenty times before his perseverance
could boar fruit. The criminals read religious books and
newspapers wdth great interest. Everyone was now anxious
to secure nows about Hindusthan and making propaganda
for her cause ! At the time of Savarkar’s departure the
library contained about 2,000 books. The object of the

THE IHDIAN BASTILLE 107

campaign was fulfilled. The cent per cent illiteracy amongst
the convicts was changed into sixty per cent literacy when
Savarkar left the Andamans.

But none of his propagandistic moves aroused so vigorous
an opposition and such widespread misunderstanding as did
his great efforts for investing Hindi with the importance of
the Lingua Franca of India. That Hindi should be the Lingua
Franca of India was one of the important creeds of the Abhi-
nava Bharat. The Abhinava Bharat had declared this times
without number. Savarkar struggled hard to imprint upon the
minds of his colleague.? and co-prisoners the importance of
Hindi. Struggle, storm, sparks, conviction and spell are the
characteristics of Savarkarian movements. They are the fate
of evex'y pioneer, precursor and prophet. Savarkar appealed
to his colleagues to call for books on Hindi. He taught them
Hindi. He insisted that every prisoner should learn his main
provincial language and Hindi as the national language.
Madrasis and Bengalis were averse to it and adversely
criticised Savarkar’s stand. They even suspected that
Savarkar wanted to kill their mother-tongues under the guise
of a National Language. If somebody wished to bestow gifts
in memory of the celebration of any good day or event,
Savarkar persuaded him to give Hindi books. Savarkar
answered his critics that he never persuaded any one to
purchase Marathi books and asked them whether he wanted
to kill Marathi also. Not less violent was the opposition from
the British Officers. They knew Urdu and therefore they
opposed the introduction of Hindi and Nagari and more so
because it was a cause propagated by Savarkar. Hence they
feared that either it would enormously increase his influence
or would develop into a menace in some respects ! This
latter suspicion was mooted and fomented by the Muslims in
the Andamans too !

In this cause the Arya Samajists helped him, as Swami
Dayananda, their prophet, was the first and foremost leader
to champion the cause of Hindi with Nagari script, as the
Lingua Franca of India. Dayananda wrote his books in Hindi.
Savarkar’s respect for Dayananda was high. He got the
Satyartha Prakash read by his colleagues and co-prisoners. He
regarded the great work of Dayananda as a fearless and

108 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

farmidable exposition that teaches and implants the noble
ideals of Hindu culture, elucidating the importance of Hindu
religion as the national religion of Hindusthan. Savarkar
explained to his colleagues how Hindi had been the national
tongue, an all-India language of the sadhus and merchants,
princes and pilgrims from Rameshwar to Badrinath, from Puri
to Dwarka ever since the days of Prithviraj.

Before this the second language of the jail office of the
Cellular Jail or the Andamans was Urdu and the posts of
Munshis had been occupied by persons from Upper India who
were educated in Urdu. Letters, reports and applications to
and from the Andamans were written in Urdu ! After a long
struggle Savarkar persuaded the prisoners to write their
letters in the provincial languages or conveniently in Hindi
and to write their complaints, answers, or applications in Hindi
so that the necessity and urgency of Nagari-knowing Munshis
should be felt increasingly. The effect was tremendous.
Formerly ninety per cent of the letters from and to the
Andamans were in Urdu, a few years after the arrival of
Savarkar the tables were turned and the ratio was in the
reverse order. Some distinguished prisoners from the Punjab,
who had composed their poetry in Urdu, got themselves
accustomed to the Nagari Hindi and re-wrote their poems in
Hindi !

In the colony of free citizens this constant propaganda for
Nagari and Hindi took root and the ceremonial invitation cards
began to appear in Hindi. From the conversations of Hindus
the similes and metaphors describing the Arabic environ-
ments disappeared by and by. It has been Savarkar’s bold
and constant stand for the last forty years that Urdu should
be preserved for Muslims, but it should not be allowed to
replace or dominate Hindi in any field on any account. The
propaganda and importance of the Lingua Franca appealed
even to the officers who were secretly tutored in Hindi. It was
through Savarkar’s efforts and pressure that a Girls’ School
was started in the colony but he could not annihilate the
teaching of Urdu in Boys’ Schools as his departure came off
suddenly ! Savarkar held that if the importance and future
of the Andamans was to be increased usefully in reference to
the safety and predominance of Hindusthan and Hindu

THE INDIAN BA:STXI.LB 109

ctilture, Hindi and Nagari should be made compulsory in the
Andamans.

The significance of this farsighted move can now be imagin-
ed and appreciated. Long before any leader of prominence
ever since the days of Dayananda dreamt of its importance
or entered the field, Savarkar was the only outstanding Hindu
leader who strove in right earnest from 1906 to invest Hindi
with the power and prestige of the National Language. On
the vital problems of nation building he has been ever out-
spoken, uncompromising and prophetic as none else could be.
The Nagari Pracharini Sabha was, of course, toiling in the
field, but slogans fail in the field, if guns are not in the fsjre-
front. It was after forty-three years since the days of the
Abhinava Bharat’s declaration that the nation accepted Hindi
with the Devanagari script as the Lingua Franca of Free
Hindusthan !

IV

In the meantime troubles were coming to a head in the
Andamans. The boldest among the prisoners resolved to
launch upon a strike to vindicate their rights. The strike was
marked by many incidents. Calm, sturdy and of good family,
one Punjabi revolutionary was yoked to the oil-mill. Having
worked till 10 a.m. he took his bath and meals calmly regard-
less of the words of abuse poured by the petty officers to make
him work. The situation grew rather intolerable. The pot-
bellied jailer with the staff in his hand appeared on the scene.
The prisoner told him that he was chewing his food scientific-
ally. Barrie threatened him with punishment, but he did not
yield.

Such rebellious prisoners were kept on rice-gruel, and in
order to weaken the strength of their minds doses of quinine
or some drastic purgative were forced down their throats.
That tortured their physique and aggravated their agonies.
Despite these insufferable tortures this valiant revolutionary
did not yield. At last Barrie came to terms. After four days’
regular work he was relieved of the hard labour. As a result
of this strike, the political prisoners were sent outside for
work in deference to their demands. There they did some

110 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

odd jobs, but one and all refused to draw carts of officers and

re-asserted their dignity.

Savarkar’s elder brother was one of the most unbending
prisoners. The jailer and his dogs tried every method and
measure to torture him. Unfortunately some maladies
worsened the trouble. He was seized now and then with
a splitting headache, typhoid and cholera, but not a drop of
medicine was given to him. He groaned frightfully with pain.
Still he was made to chop the shell of cocoanuts. In the
closed cell he helplessly passed his watery motions upon the
rubbish and threw it outside when the door opened. For
such unavoidable breach he was often hung in hand-cuffs in
a painful state, his bowels purging and his urine passing the
while ! What man has made of man ! Yet this brave man
of steel frame worked at the oil-mill with all his might and
in spite of his agonies, but never did he yield to humiliation
nor did he do a dishonourable act to purchase a sigh of relief.
For good many days the two brothers were not allowed to
have even a glimpse of each other. When Savarkar enquired
of the officers about the severe illness of his elder brother he
was told to speak for himself. They said rules forbade them
to disclose his whereabouts to a prisoner or to speak about
his health ! In the end secret sympathies worked and Babarao
caught sight of his brother. Seeing his younger brother after
years, he burst out: “Tatya, how do you happen to be
here ? ” That direct query pierced Savarkar’s heart. He
was about to speak, but the brothers were suddenly pulled
asunder. Subsequently a secret note to his brother from
Babarao lamented. “The belief that you were carrying on
the fight for the liberation of our Motherland enlivened my
heart and lightened my tortures. Who will carry on your
work ? Your gifts and powers will now go to waste.” The
reply from Savarkar went in a consolatory tone : “ My
abilities and powers have stood the grim test. The glory of
it is that what I preached I practised and fell fighting in the
forefront. It is also a righteous duty to suffer tortures rotting
in the cell with curses from those for whom we fell. For the
achievement of the final victory, these sighs, sufferings and
sacrifices in the cells are as necessary as is the fighting with
the blare of the trumpets of ^ory.”

THE INDIAN BASTILLE

111

To alleviate the tortxures and to blunt the edges of the cruel
claws of the administration, the political prisoners headed by
Savarkar, began to think out ways and means. It was neces-
sary to bring pressure upon the administration from without.
British officers who ruled in the land of Death depended upon
each other for company and comforts. They played, they
danced, they enjoyed themselves together and naturally their
interests did not clash in the administration. Hence a com-
plaint against one was never paid heed to by another ! It
was, therefore, necessary that the leaders in India should know
something of those terrible tortrires. But hov/ to bell the cat
was the question. At last Hotilalji Varma dared and did it.
His secret letter to Surendranath Banerjee giving the details
of the jail life in general reached the Bengal leader ihrough
secret channels. Surendranath published it in his
under the signature of Hotilalji with the numbers of his id!
and chawl ! It was a veritable bombshell. On hearing this
Barrie ran to the cells like a man scorched by embeis. He
roared at Hotilal : “ Stand up at once. You are a rank
rascal,” said he in a voice of thunder. Barrie told Savarkar
about the mischief of Hotilal and falsely added that the Press
in which the Bengali was printed was confiscated.

Everybody in the Andamans was always anxious to get a
scrap of news about the happenings in the Motherland beyond
the ocean. New-comers were, therefore, alway.s i cccived with
utmost cordiality for the sake of news. News also filtered
and was circulated through many other channels. A brave
son of a great leader of the Punjab serving a term in a prison
in the Punjab wrote a letter to Savarkar on the back of
the ticket of a convict. The fellow brought it to Savarhar
undetected. Sources of foreign news were the rubbish papers
at the water closets of the British officers, old soiled wrapping
papers of pins, nails and other articles. Many prisoners lost
their privilege of working outside the jail for bringing in
pieces of newspapers but the news agency worked unabated.
Political prisoners secretly shared their bread with those
devoted and daring messengers. Barrie gaped and was
dumbfounded to know the futility of suppressing news. He
often told the superintendent that even if the devil was
appointed jailer it would be impossible for him to stop news

112 SAVAHKAB AND HIS TIMES

going to those bomb-throwers. Sometimes on his night
rounds Barrie heard messages transmitted by the political
prisoners to one another from one end of the jail to the other
through some peculiar sounds of the chains. If at all the
illiterate warders suspected something, the political prisoners
told the warders that they were muttering prayers in their
mind to the tune of chains ! This Andaman’s wireless was
introduced in Nagari by Babarao Savarkar.

With the same heartlessness Barrie once informed Savarkar
that his friend Hardayal was due to come to the Andamans.
After many secret anxious inquiries Savarkar learnt that
Hardayal had, in fact, given a slip to the Government of
U.S.A. Barrie also once told Savarkar that his brother
Narayanrao was expected in the Andamans as a result of
the bomb thrown at Lord Hardinge in Delhi ! The word
Savarkar was synonymous with sedition and sedition became
synonymous with Savarkar ! Even the Chief Commissioner
told Savarkar that he had met Babu Surendranath Banerjee
on board the steamer and the latter had inquired after the
health of Savarkar. Savaikar had nothing but high regard
for Surendranath Banerjee. He paid tributes to the
imcrowned king of Bengal for the word of encouragement he
sent through a German Military Officer-prisoner and the
sympathy and help he rendered to the patriots in the cellular
jail.

In 1911 there were rumours afloat in the Andamans that all
political prisoners were to be released in memory of the Delhi
Dvwbar. Expectations became rife ; rumours rained. Though
sceptical of his release, a wave of sensation passed through
Savarkar’s body when he heard everyone saying, “Barrister
Babu, you are to be released.” The day dawned. Excepting
Savarkar and a Bengali political prisoner all were given
remission of a month per year. All that Savarkar got was
potato-rice. And the cells were again enveloped in utter
disappointment.

At times when in good humour Barrie would of him.tiplf
break shocking news to Savarkar. One day in 1915 Barrie
told Savarkar that G. K. Gokhale was dead. Savarkar paid
glowing tributes to the memory of the great patriot. Hearing
the glowing tributes paid by Savarkar to the selfless service

THE INDIAN BASTILLE 113

and profound patriotism of Gokhale, Barrie was talfAii aback
and he noted in his diary that though the Maharashtrians
differed outwardly they were one at heart ! Hardayalji had
the same experience about Mahratta leaders.

Savarkar was very anxious to know if India had made any
progress with the royal event. He learnt that the settled
fact was unsettled ; the partition of Bengal was annulled.
Savarkar was happy and said to his colleagues : “ Once a
man is convinced that quinine roots out Malaria, he will take
it whenever he gets an attack of Malaria.” The capital of
India was about to be transferred to Delhi as foretold by
Savarkar, but he said that from the standpoint of liistory,
culture, politics and geography, Ujjain should be the proper
place for the capital of India. December 23, 1912, was the
day for the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi.
The state entry of Lord Hardinge, the Governor-General of
India, in oriental splendour, was greeted with a terrific bomb
at the famous Chandni Chowk. Lord Hardinge was wounded
while riding in the silver Howdah upon an elephant. The
man behind Hardinge who held the state umbrella was killed.
Hardinge fainted from loss of blood and his wounds took some
months to heal. It seemed that the royal proclamation could
not pacify the revolutionaries. They were grappling as
before with the British power for the liberation of the Mother-
land.

Among the most heroic sufferers in the Andamans that put
up a brave fight to undermine the rigid and rapacious jail
administration of the Cellular Jail and to break the speU of
terror was one Indu Bhushan Roy. Stout, sturdy and spirited,
he was sentenced to transportation for 10 years in the Manik-
tola case. Indu Bhushan soon fell ill and was thrown into his
cell. And instead of giving medicine, Barrie yoked him to
the oil-mill. With deadly pale face, Indu walked with great
effort and great pain. Savarkar tried to console him by
bringing his own severest lot to his attention and cheered him
up. But to no purpose. Next morning Indu Bhushan was
a stiff block, his tongue drawn out, his legs hanging loosely.
Barrie hushed up the note which Indu had suspended on his
chest and stated that Indu’s death was the outcome of in-
sanity. Savarkar challenged this statement and persisted in

t

114 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

f alling Barrie that it was an outcome of the extreme physical
hardships of jail life. Upendranath Banerjee of Alipore case
was also harnessed to the oil-mill. His whole frame ached and
his mental condition grew so much pitiable that a sympathetic
word would move him to tears. Ullaskar Dutt of Alipore
case whom the judge described as a noblest youth was a witty,
fearless and good-hearted type of humanity. When he was
tortured with electric shocks, Ullaskar moaned, raved and
pitieously groaned. He was then transferred to the mental
hospital and thence to Madras and was afterwards released.

After the tragedy of Ullaskar, Barrie asked Savarkar when
he would go mad. Savarkar replied angrily, “ Perhaps after
you go mad ! ” At this juncture a note from Savarkar dis-
cussing the policy of an immediate strike was seized and
Savarkar was punished by putting him in standing hand-cuffs.
Crook as he was, Barrie managed to get Savaikar’s note in
Modi read by a Bengali as if it were written in Bengali !
Savarkar appealed to the Superintendent to look into the
truth and see whether the chit was in Bengali. The truth
came out and Barrie was severely reprimanded. The second
time Savarkar was hung in hand-cuffs was for his note asking
somebody to bring news. Barrie unkindly joked with Savar-
kar in standing hand-cuffs, “ What is this about ? ”

“ Postage ! ” replied Savarkar. “ It has rather cost you much,”
said Barrie. Savarkar answered back pungently, "Not at
all ! In your ca.se you have to pay subscription for news-
papers plus postage. We get news free of subscription. Only
this sort of postage we have to pay half-yearly or so ! ”

The third in the line of martyrs was Nani Gopal, a Bengali
revolutionary of good family. As he was yoked to the oil-
mill, he gave up all work, observed silence, abandoned jail
apparel, and gave up food. The Superintendent decided to flog
him. Savarkar warned Barrie that if they shed his blood
the revolutionaries would definitely retaliate. MAanfimp ,
thrilling news about Indu Bhushan and Ullaskar appeared in
the Indian press. The officers were alarmed. Consequently
there was a sudden roimd-up in the Andamans. Rumours
had it that the revolutionaries were planning to bomb the
Cellular Jail ! Strict measures were adopted. Thorough
search was taken in every cell and in the settlement also.

THE INOIAH BASTILLE

115

Free people and prisoners alike were harassed. Bar-fetters,
hand-cuffs, standing hand-cuffs, penal diet, solitary confine-
ment and all sorts of punishments were imposed. Savarkar
was told that he would never be allowed to work outside,
though according to rules he ought to have been released long
ago from the Cellular Jail to settle on the island. It was
certified that his conduct was exemplary, but his past was
dangerous ! !

Barrie was now wild with rage. He ordered all poUtical
prisoners not to speak in English as he thought their talk in
English raised them high in the eyes of the ordinary criminals.
At once a rebel rose and said in Hindi that because the jailer
asked questions in English they answered in English and
added that political prisoners were not so much enamoured
of Enghsh. He further retorted : “ It is true that we have
not become one with the English tongue and shamelessly
enough forgotten our language. Look at our jailer, he is an
Irishman, but does not know a word of his mother-tongue ! ”
Barrie was scandalized. In a fit of paroxysm he bragged out :
“ You Indians, you are our slaves.” A bold voice shot back,
“ Your slaves ! What are you ? You are a child of a slave
of the British Empire. We are slaves of the British Elmpire
and not yours ! Moreover, we have been striving at the risk
of our necks to overthrow the foreign yoke while you are
calling that empire your own, the empire which has enslaved
your Motherland and what is worse, you are living on the
crumbs of loaf that are thrown before you ! ” Upon this all
the prisoners burst into shrieks of uncontrollable laughter to
the great scandal of the jailer ! The order was changed imme-
diately. He ordered the political prisoners not to speak again
in Hindi !

The protests in the press, the questions in the Imperial
Council, the growing volume of public opinion and the thril-
ling stories of the Cellular Jail brought pressure upon the
Government of India and the Home Member, Sir Reginald
Craddock, paid a visit to the Andamans in 1913. Some selected
political prisoners were called for interview. A few were told
that they deserved a more grievous fate. Others were told
that their past was dangerous. The interview with Savarkar
took a shrewd turn.

116 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

Craddock ; Savarkar, what a pitiable condition you have
thrown yourself in. I have read your writings. If your
intellectual powers had worked in the proper direction,
any highest post of authority in India would have been
conferred upon you. But you chose this line !

Savarkar ; But it is up to you now to save me these tribu-
lations. I learn Gokhale’s Bill demanding compulsory
education has come up for consideration in the Council.
If such opportunities are offered to us, almost all from
our fold will prefer peaceful methods.

Craddock : How do you know that ? Do you also know
the whereabouts of your comrades and lieutenants ?

Savarkar : How can I ? I am here in a solitary cell. But
we know each other’s views. It is a sin to follow the path
of violence when it is possible to make progress in a
peaceful way. Such were my views when we worked in
the revolutionary camp. Such were theirs. Perhaps they
may be thinking likewise.

Craddock : Not at all ! They are still proclaiming the
battle cry in your name in India and in America.

Savarkar ; I know about it from you. How can I prevent
them from using my name ?

Craddock : We will consider the advisability if you are
prepared to write to them about your present views.

Savarkar : Of course, I shall willingly do it. But that
letter must be written by me independently, otherwise it
will be of no use !

Craddock : The letter must go through us !

Savarkar : Then it will mean to them that it was an
extraction !

Craddock : We can’t allow it.

Savarkar : I can’t help it.

Craddock (staring a bit) : Well then, what are your
grievimces ?

Savarkar began to tell the tale of trials. The Chief Com-
missioner intervened. “ But you aU have conspired and acted
dangerously. If Russians had ruled India, they would have
transported you to Siberia or shot you dead.” He added that
political prisoners should be grateful to the British Govern-
ment for having treated them so considerately.

THE INDIAN BASTILLE

117

Savabkar : In that case the Russians would not have dis-
armed us. Peoples of Siberia can be generals. Had it
been possible for us to bear arms, the story of the over-
throw of the Mogul empire would have been repeated !

CKADDOCac : What if you had rebelled against the ancient
Indian Kings. They would have trampled you under the
feet of elephants.

Savarkar : They would have ! In days gone by in Eng-
land a man was also dragged along the street for commit-
ting theft and was beheaded. But it is not so now. The
thing is that this advanced stage is the result of the efforts
of both the camps. If rebels were trampled under ele-
phant's feet, they also, when successful, used to behead
a king like Charles I. Times are changed. Both camps
have improved their methods ! It is a sign of progress.
You frankly tell us that you are not guided by any rules
and we will prepare ourselves for that also !

Craddock came and went. Yet, Nani Gopal had not taken
food. Forty-five days had glided by. Some political prisoners
went on a sympathetic fast and thus the third strike began.
Savarkar awaited his home letter, but it was not handed over
to him as Dr. Savarkar had written to him that Keir Hardie
had compared Irish and Indian revolutionaries in his speech
in Parliament and remai'ked that ‘ British Government had
harshly crushed Savarkar.’ Savarkar knew this through his
secret source and then joined the strike. From the first he
was averse to a hunger strike and wasting energy. But Nani
Gopal’s life was in danger. He, therefore, declined to take
food and asked for an interview with Nani Gopal. Nani Gopal
and Savarkar were allowed to meet. Nani Gopal broke his
fast when he knew that Savarkar had gone on a sympathetic
fast. Mirzakhan, the notorious pocket edition of Barrie,
proudly told Savarkar that Nani was a brave disciple of
Savarkar and his courage befitted a Pathan and not a Hindu !
Savarkar answered in a Savarkarian way. He said, “Had
Nani been a Pathan he would have like a fawning dog licked
the dust at the feet of Barrie ! The fact is that had all the
Pathans been brave and all the Hindus not brave, your Pathan
or Mogul Empire would not have been .smashed by the
Hindus ! ”

118 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

The years rolled by and at last came the news that the
Government of India had decided to bring back the termed
convicts to Indian jails. Those undergoing life terms were to
be released from jail to settle on the island, if their conduct
was satisfactory. While in prison they were to be given better
class food and clothes and after five years they were to bo
allowed to cook their own food with a little money to easen
their life !

Thus pressure from without and struggle from within
slackened the rigours and rigid rules of the Deathland !

CHAPTER VII

Genius Thrives in Jail

I

In his utter helplessness and colossal frustration of life
Savarkar was striving superhumanly to wring some good
out of it. A true ascetic and man of action as he was, he
resolved to make the most of life and to make the best of it.
Such men of supreme courage and indomitable mil make
appearance from age to age. Stone walls do not imprison
them, nor do iron bars encage them. Their angelic souls rise
above and soar. Their life is real. Earnestness is its breath.
The grave is not its goal. Their souls are indestructible. A
cruel thread of destiny was weaving and tightening round the
neck of Savarkar. Despite the horrible and indescribable
agonies, his genius throve in jail.

Ever since his childhood, when he was quite ignorant of
what an epic was like, Savarkar had a mind to compose an
epic on ‘ Panipat ^ but, being a poet of action, he could not
find time for this great work. He seized this opportunity
and almost achieved his goal. And this marvellous feat was
performed in the dark Andamans where reading and writing
was a crime. He had no paper, nor had he pencil. In prison
life philosophy is the ultimate refuge of a troubled soul. And
we know how all distinguished political prisoners of world
fame wrote famous histories, autobiographies, works on
philosophy and other kind of great works.

John Bimyan wrote his immortal Pilgrim's Progress^ Thomas
Moor wrote his Utopia, Sir Walter Raleigh, his History of the
world, Tilak, his Gita Rahasya, Hitler, his Mein Kampf, and
Nehru, his Autobiography and Glimpses of World History.
Fortimately all these eminent men were supplied with writing
and reading facilities. But Savarkar was the only eminent poli-
tical prisoner of world fame who composed some ten thousand
and odd lines of poetry of great imagination and of great
thought, wrote them on the prison walls with thorns and

120 SAVA8KAR AND HIS TIMES

pebbles, learnt them by heart secretly, and astounded the
imagination of the world, giving an ocular proof of how the
Vedas have been handed down ever since the childhood of
civilization ! Just imagine the unbending tenacity and undying
will power of a young man undergoing a sentence for half-
a-century, who, while hanging in handcuffs during the punish-
ment hours of jail life, recited, revised and learnt by heart
his poems. Add to this, his untiring energy and ingenuity in
making the wild criminals and devotional colleagues learn
some of those poems by heart. After their release they went
to Savarkar’s brother, Dr. N. D. Savarkar, and recited them
dutifully and faithfully for reproduction.

Savarkar is a term s5monymous with patriotism in the
domain of Indian politics and poetry. The parent thought of
his poetry is the worship of the Goddess of Freedom. He
sings : —

We dedicated to thee our thoughts

Our speech, our eloquence to thee. Oh Mother !

My lyre sang of thee alone and

My pen wrote of thee alone, Oh Mother !

And

For thy sake death is life
Without thee life is death.

And

O Mother, who will dare insult thee in the world
We will give thee bath of his blood.

And

Even so this our Motherland craving the assistance
Of the Lord that she too be rescued from the crocodile
Clutches of Bondage enters our Garden, plucks
A fresh flower from the bough and offers
It at His feet in worship.

And

Deathless is the family that falls to a man,

For the emancipation of its Motherland,

Filling the skies with the fragrance of their sacrifice,
Made in the welfare of Man’s rise.

GENIUS THRIVES IN JAII. 121

Abject slavery and crushing foreign yoke are the source of
his note. Glorious past is its inspiration. Patriotism is its
song, Swaraj its aim and Humanity its goal. His poems and
ballads have enchanted and in.spired numerous patriots, and,
though suppressed by Government, were secretly circulated
from sire to son. No other Bharatiya poet except Valmiki,
Vyas and the great poets Chand and Bhushan— the latter pair
sang the declining glory of the Rajputs— has sung of glorious
victories of the Hindus, Hindu life, history and culture so
immensely and epically as Savarkar has done. No other
modern Hindu iwet has preached and ])ropagated love for
Swaraj and Swadharma so intensely, fervently and stirringly
as Savarkar has done. Savarkar represents an admirable
combination of the valour of Veer Arjun and the poetic genius
of Veda Vyas !

Sri G. T. Madkholkar, an eminent Mahratta literary critic,
describes Savarkar as a poet who rivals Kalidas in the use of
similes, a poet on the war path bristling with vigour, genius,
learning and the lustre of the spear of the Mahratta warriors,
who hammered the Mogul throne of Delhi to pieces and the
sweetness of all the emotions of the Mahratta saint-poets who
have raised this mortal world to the level of the abode of
Vishnu. “ It is because of all this,” observes Madkholkar,
“ that I make bold to say that Savarkar occupies the first and
foremost place in the galaxy of Marathi poets.”

According to Madkholkar, Savarkar is perhaps the only
poet who has during the last thirty years made conscious
efforts to inflame the urge for independence and the sense of
self-respect by holding before the Hindus, who were deprived
of their freedom, the grand picture of the ancient glory and
the valiant deeds of the past. The reason why all of Savarkar’s
literary productions have assumed such a fascinating and
sublime quality is that Savarkar has so beautifully and
lavishly made use of Vedic, epic and historical ideas in his
poetry, plays and other works. Madkholkar concludes : “ In
his poems he has strung together so many beautiful and
sublime ideas about Hindu life, culture, philosophy, and
history that in the poetry of no modern poet of the last
hundred years can they ever be found.”

Savarkar’s poetry has an autobiographical note and is

122 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

subjective pav excellence. He is a poet of action, of great
personal experience, of lofty imagination, of noble emotions,
of great sincerity and of great personality. His poetry bears
a unique charm. His is great poetry of rare thrill, epic
sweep, sky-high range, and grand metre ! His thoughts
breathe, his words burn. Though hurled from the siunmit
of a mountain into the limitless ocean, or into the frying-pan,
the undying soul of Savarkar, like Pralhad, survives and
sings songs of God and Man. Himself a subject of an epic,
he has produced an epic. Poet Savarkar belongs to the line
of great poets. It is easy and safe for a poetical soul to sing
mystic and vague songs of grand eternity, eyeless fraternity
and aimless liberty at a time when his own kith and kin are
ground under the heels of slavery and poverty. But it is given
to a few poets of Savarkar’s nerve and mission to raise the
fallen in revolt and to drive a slave country to a fight for
freedom. The reward for the former class is some coveted
prize. The prize for the latter cast is the rope ! Only the
definite, daring and self-experienced poetry can soar in the
realm of this inspired class.

There are good poets in Marathi. But in the words of
Dr. K. N. Watwe, Ph.D., and Acharya Atre, two foremost
authorities on Sanskrit and Marathi Poetry respectively, even
a dozen of that class would not together make one Savarkar.
The difference between them and Savarkar is the difference
between the simile and the metaphor. Some of them have
repeated or expressed the thoughts of others, the sensations
of others, the emotions of others. Savarkar has expressed
his own emotions, his own sensations, his own thoughts. His
style may, at some places, lack the ‘ correctitude ’ of strict
school-masters and dry professors. In that Deathland he
could not prune and polish it ! Yet, in personality, in sincerity,
in style, and in prophetic vision, he is superior to them all.
In greatness of sweep, in loftiness of imagination, in the gift
of prophetic vision, he scarcely yields to the great ones of
world poetry. Take, for example, Savarkar’s magnum opus
in poetry, the Kamala. His Kamala rivals in delineation and
delicacy with Shakespeare’s Miranda or Shakuntala of
Kalidas.

Savarkar’s creative imagination is powerful and is ever on

GENIUS THRIVES IN JAIL

123

its wings. In the twinkling of an eye it perches on the tower
of the universe. “ It surveys the royal procession of the Lord
of the Universe marching in pomp and splendoxir. The ages
are its miles and through the fi-iction of the wheels of His
Chariot have sprung dusty .sparks that are shining as stars.

In its pomp and splendour the procession is climbing down the
path of Time. Tlie comets are its arrows, the solar system
is the row of fireworks going on. Sun.s and Moons are torches
and Life if' its energy ! To Savarkar’s lofty imagination the
whole universe is the image of God. Shiva. The limitless sky
is its hair and in it are the Moon and the It'Iilky Way 1

Savarkar compares lotuses in water to hali-nude Gopikas
bewitched by Krishna, bathing in the Yamuna. To him
Kamala, the heroine in liis long Poem, looks as fascinating in
a porched sofa as does a simile in the poetry of Kalidas. He
describes her beauty in a marvellous simile. To him Kamala
looks like the sweet dawn between fading moonlight and
blooming of the day. To him at dawn stars look like the
frozen drops of dew. He calls the butterfly an agent of the
God of Love or Cupid that flies from flower to flower
transporting kisses. Flowers are the imprints of kisses taken
by the watchman of the nymphs who enter the garden secretly.
In his famous Ballad on Sinhagad, the sea, the mother of gems,
envies the lot of the eairth because it has sheltered the
invaluable jewel Tanaji, who fell fighting on the Kondana
Fort.

What great, grand and good poetry ! The wonder of it
is that it blossomed in the wild Andamans ! The collection
of his poems are aptly named as “ Wild Flowers.” These
flowers have not met with world-wide appreciation for want
of an agency that would distribute these flowers among the
appreciating public of the world at large. Though complete
in themselves, “ Kamala,” “ Gomantak,” “ Saptarshi,” “ Vira-
hochhvas ” “ Mahasagara ” are parts of the incomplete epic.
His other poems, “ Chain,” “ Cell,” “ Chariot festival of Lord
Jagannath,” “ Oh Sleep,” and “ On Death Bed ” have a
philosophical basis. These poems shed a searchlight on the
innermost comer of the heart of Savarkar who loves entire
secession from worldly affairs and who is in his heart of hearts
an ascetic loving a retired and contemplative life intent on

124 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

soul-contemplation ! To Savarkar engrossed in such soul-
contemplation the very Shanivar Wada, the perennial source
of political inspiration, is a heap of stones ! But the world
around has not reached that divine stage of viewing things
through such an angle! Peoples are crying for food,
freedom, and faith. The worldly man comes out and
he is Savarkar, the revolutionary realist ! Did the great
Shankaracharya study modern science and world and make
his reappearance in Bharat Varsha ?

Hence it is cleai- that Savarkar’s outlook on life is that of
an ascetic moving in great events. Love of action and not
renunciation of action has become the predominant and
positive note of his life and literature. His views on the
Vedant philosophy are ever to be remembered. He writes
from the Andamans to his brother : “ The Americans need
Vedanta philosophy and so does England, for they have
developed their life to that fulness, richness and manliness —
to Kshatriyahood and so stand on the threshold of that
Brahminhood, wherein alone the capacity to read and realize
such philosophy can co-exist. But India is not. We are at
present all Shudras and can’t claim access to the Vedas and
Vedanta. . . . We, as a nation, are unfit for these sublime
thoughts, for it is well known that Bajirao II was a great
Vedantist and that is why, perhaps, he could not see the
difference between a kingdom and a pension. Let us study
history, political science, science, economy ; live worthily in
this world, fulfil the householders’ duties and then the
philosophic dawn might come.”

To him life on this earth is like a three petalled flower. One
is coloured with pleasure, the second with the colour of pain,
the third mixed or colourless. Now the petal of pleasure and
then that of pain gets warmed and thus this vain round of
recurrence goes on. According to him the true picture of the
world is one wherein a tigress with a piece of fle.sh of deer
in its mouth is suckling its babe, a picture of pity
and cruelty. Savarkar is not a bloodthirsty man. He is
guided by the noble precept laid down by Lord Krishna : “ Do
unto others as thou wouldst be done by.” He says he was a
revolutionary under necessity and not by inherent choice.
He sincerely abhors absolute violence. Where is the man

GENIUS THBIVES IN JAIL 125

who would run the ordeals of fire or would tread the paths of
furies with bleeding feet for sheer amusement, he asks. He
is a man who always fights for a just and righteous cause, lor
the protection of the good and for the destruction of the
evil-doers. “ For it was this very principle,” he states, ” that
humanity was a higher patriotism that made us so restless
when we saw that a part of it should aggrandise and swell
like a virulent cancer in such wise as to threaten the life of
the human whole, and forced us. for want of any other
effective remedy, to take to the surgeon’s knife and feel that
severity for the moment would certainly lie mercy in the long
run.” He says in his poem, “ On Death Bed ” : “If ever 1
deemed it legitimate to have recourse to the exceptional swift
and severe rules of emergency, it w'a.s only because duty led
me and my generation into circumstances so abnormal and
urgent as to render them indispensable in the interest of
righteousness itself.” Duty for the sake of duly ! And he
interpreted that duty of man. He says : “ Though the wise
men, priests and sooth-sayers speak differently and in diverse
accents, yet whatever conduces to the progress of Man,
whatever contributes to the greatest good of the human soul
and had been approved by the pious and the pure that alone
I took to be the Duty of Man.”

Death had no horrors for Savarkar. He said that he had
paid the debt of the Motherland by facing the furious fire,
getting himself consumed bone by bone and flesh by flesh,
that he had paid the debt of God by fighting under ‘His
Banner,’ that he had adopted the Abhinava Bharat to continue
the line of his family. He realized the kinship with all that
breathed in the Universe and at times was so overpowered
with a sense of Universal sympathy that his feet would get
stuck to the spot lest he should trample to death under his
feet some blades of grass, or worms. Often in his pensive
mood he held the morsel in his hand, thinking that it contained
seeds which were flesh and life striving to grow and enjoy
the air they breathed.

If he dies in despair, he says, he will not feel sorry for there
is no end to one’s desires and ambitions. If the end of life is
shifting to another life according to merits, he is confident
that a good place will be reserved for him as he possesses the

126 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

best testimonials from Lord Krishna himself that he served
selflessly for the cause of Man, God and Country. If life is
to disintegrate into fragments and atoms, death will be to him
a sound sleep in that case ; or let those atoms, he says, forget
themselves and let the ‘ I ’ in him disappear into the Universal
oneness !

Yet one more point is to be noted about Savarkar, the poet.
He has introduced blank verse metre called ‘ Vainayak ’ into
Marathi poetry. The Anushtubha metre of the Ramaxja7ia
and the Mahahharata fame, Milton’s blank verse metre which
poet Madhusudan of Bengal has popularized in Bengal,
charmed him exceedingly in his school and Andaman days.

The romanticism in Savarkar’s poetry has been properly
bridled by a sense of realism, a love of service and sacrifice,
and a goal of universalism. His head is towering up in the
Universe, his mind weighing good and bad, and his eyes
watchful for the greatest good of Man. Front-rank critics
and great ones of Marathi literature from N. C. Kelkar
to G. T. Madkholkar, from Daji Nagesh Apte to P. K. Atre,
all have paid glowing tributes to his genius and have been
fascinated by the flights of Savarkar’s imagination conveying
great and good thoughts !

II

In the Andamans Savarkar had ample tune to philosophize
his political theories and theorise his political philosophy. His
thoughts, reading and experience evolved into a definite
ideology. The seeds of his ideology took firm root and
sprouted into a tree. The decrease in the population of the
Hindus and the consequent danger to Hindusthan by the rise
of rival and ahen proselytizing faiths absorbed his mind. In
Europe people belong to one religion. There strife is between
races for predominance and domination. In India it is a
question of rival religions, where kidnapping and conversion
are ostensibly done in the name of religion to strengthen a
rival faith. The danger Savarkar scented was clear, straight,
and tremendous.

Though the British Government had to resort to a policy of
non-interference in religious affairs, they were in a way not
inclined to curb the proselytizing activities of the Muslims.

GENIUS THRIVES IN JAIL 127

Mosques, markets, habitats of Muslim robbers and the prison
houses had been free fields for the conversion of the Hindus.
Whenever news came to Savarkar about the conversion of
a Hindu lad or a prisoner, he was restless and he turned his
mind devotedly to the serious threat, outwardly a religious
but inwardly a crucial problem o! national importance and
existence.

Mmost all Indian jails having Hindu prisoners by majority,
the authorities naturally would appoint non-Hindus to watch
and control the prisoners. Hence Muslims easily rose to the
posts of petty officers and havaldars and warders. And those
Pathans, to quote the verdict of the Cardew Conomission,

‘ enjoyed a bad pre-eminence as the active agents in the matter
of unnatural vices.’ They turned these opportunities to bad
account and harassed and forced Hindu convicts to embrace
Islam. The revolutioneuries in the Cellular Jail were almost
exhausted due to their great efforts in agitation and action in
India and sufferings in the Andamans. In those hard, helpless,
and hopeless days none of them desired to aggravate their
hard lot by opposing the religious fanaticism of the wicked
and vile Pathan petty officers. Obviously from fear some of
them tried unworthily to cloak their cowardice with a display
of great tolerance and broad-mindedness. It mattered little to
those progressive men whether that vile and fallen lot of
wretched Hindus remained in or went out of their fold and
field ! ‘ Let it be so,’ summed up their social, individual and

mental psychology. What was worse, some even miserably
passed days, giving the Muslim warders high hopes of their
self-conversion.

Suffering for a nation’s welfare is a public and personal
duty. Savarkar was doing it in jail. Why this additional
burden ? But then a report of a conversion of a Hindu or
an injustice done to a prisoner would inflame him. Like a
lion helpless in a cage, he restlessly fluttered over the insult
and injustice done to the racial, national, or religious soul.
So with curses on his head, cares in his heart, burden on Ids
back and troubles under his feet, he resolved to put a stop
to the conversion activities of the Muslims.

With that aim in view he began to shake off the passivity in
the Hindus, activise their efforts, change their tone and

128 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

tendencies, moxild them into an organism alive to every injury,
and make them masters of their fate and land. To the broad-
minded and wiseacres he asked as to why the non-Hindus
tried to win over to their fold that base, wicked, corrupt lot of
dangerous drunkards and murderers. They said the Muslims
were fanatic and with them reason did not weigh. Well, why
did these cool and cultured Europeans use the hoe of gold
for removing that mud in Indian villages, woods and valleys ?
Indeed, to fertilize their lands of influence with the manure !
Savarkar asked his colleagues why tliose Westerners polluted
their holy religion by that vile and worthless lot of humanity ?
Why should the Missionaries and Maulavies render service
or offer food and shelter as a price for religion and never
from a humanitarian angle ? If the ulterior motive of these
Missionaries and Maulanas was that their religion and
interests should dominate the world, then let the Hindus have
the freedom to serve Humanity in their own way. Let the
Hindus aim at increasing their numerical strength to fight
their struggle for existence and material well-being. Thus
went forth his chain of arguments.

Savarkar impressed upon the minds of his colleagues that
it was not a fact that a vicious man necessarily gave birth to
vicious men. New Australia and Canada had sprung up from
such vile and base elements thrown away from their mother
countries. He reminded them that the Ramayana, one of the
best epics of the world, was given to the world by Vahniki,
a man fallen in early life. Losing one man was losing
numerous future families and increasing the numerical
strength of the rival faiths in India !

Allured by comforts, enticed by passion, baited by vices and
dreaded by tortures, a few Hindu prisoners in the Andamans
were driven into the fold of Islam. The jail administration
did not take these conversions seriously. One day it became
known to Savarkar that a Hindu boy was on the verge of
conversion. When the superintendent came on his rounds,
Savarkar cried out, “ Application, Sir ! ” The Superintendent
asked him to see and speak for himself. Savarkar tauntingly
asked him whether the Superintendent had ordered the other
prisoners also, who caught their letters or trapped the
revolutionaries, to mind their own business. Savarkar said

GBNxu riiaxvxs xn jail 129

angrily that he would n ike a complaint ; let him hear or not.
The Superintendent toned down. He tiien informed the
Superintendent about the likely conversion. The Superin-
tendent asked him as to why the EUndus did not convert
Muslims instead of making complaints against them.
Savarkar stated that Hinduism was a non-proselytizing
religion. He told the officer that Hinduism was based on the
noblest possible principles. To Hindiis, he said, religion was
not like the colour of the chameleon. He concluded : “ It is
their received and noble belief that all the religions of the
world are at the bottom one and have the same aim, i*amely
the welfare of in nanity. The Hindus never look upon
religion as a > of wordly strength and social solidarity.

That is in ny opimon thair fundamental blunder from the
point of view of national strength and solidarity.” The
Superintendent understood Savarkar ’s stand well. He asked
Savarkar what he expected the authorities to do. Savarkar
stated that no prisoner should be converted to any other
religion by fraud, force, deception, or enticement without the
knowledge and consent of the jail authorities, who on their
part should certify the bona fides of every case. He added
that all minors should be brought up in their parents’ faith
until they were able to judge the things for themselves. The
Superintendent agreed. And while departing he rated the
Pathan warder who was about to execute the conversion in
question.

The boy in question was saved, but the Hindu prisoners
would not allow him to sit in their file for meals. He sat
beside Savarkar. So they called Savarkar Bhangi Babu.
In the end Savarkar persuaded some of them to discard that
suicidal attitude and by and by the Shuddhi spirit came to
stay. It was a great news all over the Andamans that
Savarkar had stopped the conversion of a Hindu. Upon
this some convicts, who had come across the creeds and
propaganda of the Arya Samaj in India, were organized and
with the help of some fearless and bullying prisoners, some
prisoners were reconverted to Hinduism, their mother fold.
Those Sanatanists who had called Savarkar Bhangi Babu now
began to look at the problem from a new angle of vision, knew
the value of solidarity and strength and the farsighted aim of
»

130

SAVARKAR AND MIR TIMES

Savarkar and supported him. Even a Christian of long
standing was reconverted to Hinduism; later on several
Mushm attempts were foiled by an eleventh-hour intervention
or early precautions. The Muslims complained against
Savarkar that he converted even born Muslims to Hinduism.
Hindus realised now that Muslims could be converted to
Hinduism. Muslim converts and warders reviled Savarkar
incessantly, but were silenced by the turbulent Hindu
convicts drilled in the art of railing. A new idea caught the
imagination of the Hindus. They now learnt that no man
lost his faith because he took food, drink and shelter outside
his faith. The new-comers began to bear Hindu names, read
Hindu scriptures and take meals with their co-religionists.
Hindu temples in the colony were opened to them by and by.
Formerly at the v'harf of Port Blair the Hindu prisoner-
workers sometimes had to starve as they refused to take food
from the bags mischievously touched by Muslims. Savarkar
showed them their humiliating plight and suicidal foolishness
and encouraged them to touch the bags of food first
themselves. They did so and the Muslims, knowing the
reaction and the double edge of the weapon, stopped the
mischievous nonsense !

Despite the danger of personal violence, Barrie's intrigues
and incitement against him and the threats of murder from
Barrie’s lackeys, Savarkar could succeed in infusing an
organic feeling among the Hindu prisoners and even catching
the imagination of Hindus in the Colony. Once a Muslim
ruffian incited by Barrie struck a blow on Babarao Savarkar’s
head. Babarao bled profusely. Barrie rejoiced at the
accident. Savarkar remarked : “ Where dreaded gallows

failed to subdue the spirit of the Savarkars, can these goats
ever succeed ? ”

Just then the census hour struck and Savarkar persuaded
the Arya Samagists and the Sikhs to record their caste and
religion as Hindu or at least Hindu, with the words Arya or
Sikh in the bracket. Ever since his London days Savarkar
was thinking over a national definition of a ‘ Hindu ’ that
would embrace all the folds of Hindus — the Sanatanists, the
Sikhs, the Brahmos, the Arya Samajists and others. At last
he, in a divine moment, composed his famous definition in a

GENIUS THRIVES IN JAII. 131

melodioTis couplet. According to it ‘ A Hindu means a person
who regards this land of Bharat- Varsha from the Indus to the
Seas as his Fatherland as well as his Holyland, that is the
cradle land of his religion.’ That definition he developed and
brought out in a thesis after his transfer from the Andamans
to the Ratnagiri Jail. The chaos and confusion created by
nearly fifty current definitions of the word Hindu including
the one made by Tilak, which v/as frankly religious, were
brought politically, sociallj^ religiously in order, method,
historic perspective and scientific thought. This definition of
the word Hindu by Savarkar is held by many as the greatest
contribjition to Hindu thought, history and polity.

Savarkar holds that Shuddhi — reconvei'sion — solidifies and
strengthens the Hindu Society. He asks the Hindus to shed
inferiority complex and the idea of contamination by non-
Hindus in respect of food, water, .shelter and touch so that
there should be less cause for friction and fight between
Hindus and Muslims ; because the Muslims being deprived
of their throne and sword, the only means that remained for
them was rationalism. He is of the opinion that every one
should be allowed to propagate the cause and mission of his
religion by a rational and peaceful way. He never hated
the Muslims because they belonged to a different religion.
He abhorred the aggressive, unjust and wild designs of the
Moslems and Missionaries. Ej:cepting those points, Savarkar
fought for all prisoners alike and the facilities wrested were
enjoyed by Muslims too.

When a few years after Savarkar was appointed foreman
in charge of the oil-mill work, he never harassed the Muslim
prisoners because they were Muslims. He treated them
justly and kindly, but warned them not to harass the Hindus,
or not to soil the water in the tank by cleansing their feet
in it, or not to do purposely less work and bring him into
trouble. Muslims began to say ‘ Ram Ram ’ and a tiny
Hindu Raj came into being in the Andamans. No mischief,
no trouble, no pxmishment. Merchants, traders, or wealthy
men under the guise of merchants went to have a glimpse of
the Foreman of the tiny Hindu Kingdom whose capital was
the oil-depot. Untouchability had disappeared from the
kingdom. Pan-Hindu consciousness was pulsating through

132 SAVARKAR AND BIS TIMES

Hindu veins. Savarkar had been hammering into the heads
of his colleagues and convicts that among the social institu-
tions, the greatest curse of India was the caste-system. “ The
mighty current of Hindu life,” he said, “ is being threatened
to perish in bogs and sands.” He added : “ It is no good
saying, ‘ We will reduce it to four caste system first That
would not and should not be. It must be swept away root
and branch.” ^ Many a time he would touchingly remark that
the curse of caste-system had deprived India of several great
brains. He also strongly disapproved the Andhrasabha
movement and similar disintegrating moves. He disliked
that every province should desire separation and shod and
invoke long life to itself. How could the province live unless
the nation lived, he asked. “ They all — Maharashtra, Bengal,
Madras — ^are great and will live long but through her-India !
So let us not say ' Andramataki ’ but ‘ Bharatmataki Jai ’ of
whom Andhra is a limb and let us sing not ‘ Vanga Abhar,
but Hind Abhar ^ he warned.

Years glided by. A sense of oneness and noble patriotism
began to throb through the veins of the Andamans. At such
a time the death of the gi-eat Tilak in 1920 shocked India and
its repercussions reached the Cellular Jail. All prisoners
observed a day of fast in memory of the Father of Indian
imrest The fast was swiftly and silently organised to the
surprise of the jail authorities. Tilak’s dramatic disappearance
caused the sudden appearance of Gandhiji, a man of boundless
capacity and fabulous energy, on the political stage ! Writing
on the subversive movements in India, Mr. J. C. Ker, who
was a member of the Indian Civil Service from 1901 to 1929,
observed : “ The death of Tilak in August 1920 removed liis
(Gandhiji’s) strongest rival for the Hindu Leadership, and
early in 1921 the campaign of Mr. Gandhi and the Ali Brothers
was in full swing.” •

m

World War I broke out in August 1914 as forecast by
Savarkar in his London days. But alas ! He was not free

1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 32.

^ Ibid., p. 36.

» Political India, edited by Sir John Cuimning, p. 237.

GBKIUS THRIVES IN JAIL 133

to Utilize the golden opportunity to free his nation. Yet he
felt the situation advantageous to India in many respects.
“It sent a thrill of delight,” he wrote, in March 1915, from
the Celltilar Jail, “ in my heart to hear that the Indian troops
were allowed to go to Europe, in their thousands to fight
against the best military power in the world and that they
had acquainted themselves with such splendour and were
covered with military glory. Thank God ! Manliness after
all i. not dead yet in the land.” ^ Considering that the needs
and difficulties of the British Government were the seeds of
and opportunity for Indian progress, Tilak strategically
supported the militarisation policy of the Indian Government.
But, strangely enough, Gandhiji, the apostle of peace and
non-violence, surprised the country when he girded up his
loins, trod and toured the country and panted for recruiting
unconditionally soldiers for the British Power to give blood-
bath to the Germans. Tilak’s step was responsive and
statesmanly. Gandhiji ’s step was emotional and devotional
and need not surprise the rationalists. The Indian
revolutionaries in Europe and America now decided to throw
their whole weight into the direction of a revolt. They
prepared themselves for an all-out struggle for overthrowing
the British rule in India. To that end the revolutionary
leaders like Lala Hardayal, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
of the Abhinava Bharat, and Raja Mahendra Pratap were
busy discussing plans and spinning negotiations with
Germany. With full support of the German War Cabinet
they set up an Indian Independence League in Germany
xmder the Chairmanship of Sri Champaka Raman Pillai.
Accordingly, world-wide plans were devised to smuggle lakhs
of rifles and ammunition through the Muslim countries and
Tibet for the revolutionaries of the Ghadr party in the Punjab,
to land the revolutionaries of the Ghadr party in Bengal and
attack the Eastern Frontiers of India. One of the major plans
was to raid Port Blair and pick up their leader Savarkar and
other revolutionaries from the Andamans. The Sedition
Committee Report tells us that a third steamer was to sail to
the Andamans, shipping a cargo of arms at sea and raid Port

* Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 33.

134 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Blair, pick up anarchists and convicts.’^ Mr. J. C. Ker,
referring to the plans of the German Government, states :

During the war efforts were made by the Germans to use
the Indian revolutionaries for their own purposes. Elaborate
and world- wide plans were devised to land arms in Bengal
for the use of the revolutionaries there, and emissaries
proceeded between the leaders in India and German
representatives in Batavia and elsewhere to complete the
arrcijngcmenis/' The revolutionary leaders recruited and
inspired Indians abroad to fight for the Independence of their
Motherland under the banner of Ghadr party initiated by the
leaders of the Abhinava Bharat and inspired by Savarkar^s
slogans, Savarkar's book War of Independence of 1857, his
pamphlets and his personality. Pictures showing Savarkar at
the oil-mill were flashed in Ghadr papers in San Francisco
and other American papers. Thus the oil Savarkar pressed
out at the oil-mill in the Andamans did not fall into the
bucket down below, but outside it and inflamed the fire and
wrath of the Ghadr revolutionaries. And so the remark made
by Sir J. C. Ker that with his (Savarkar’s) removal, the
society in London ceased to be of any great consequence, and
on the outbreak of the Great War it was broken up,” ^ is not
vrholly true ; for the heads of the Ghadr were the lieutenants
of Savarkar. Simply for the sake of safety and strategy the
headquarters were shifted to the United States of America.

As pre-planned by the revolutionaries with the German
Government, the German war machine began to operate. The
German submarine, Emden, moved in the Bay of Bengal
raiding British cargo-ships, bombarding some of the places on
the Eastern coast of India, striking terror into the hearts of
the authorities of the Andamans and causing sleepless nights
to the Indian Government. There was a rumour in the
Andamans that the Emden was to pick up Savarkar and send
him in a German aeroplane to the headquarters of the Ghadr.
Savarkar had also discussed this possibility with his colleagues
in the Cellular Jail and was fully aw^are of it. But at this
juncture he was removed to the tower of the central building

^ Sedition Committee’s Report, p. 124.

^ Political India, edited by Sir John Gumming, p. 233,

8 Ibid., p. 232.

GENIUS THBIVES XN JAIL 135

of the jail, and was strictly watched. In the meanwhile, in
November 1914, the famous Emden was destroyed and the
escape of Savarkar could not be effected. The French
Government insincerely handed Savarkar to the British
Government and the German Government struggled for his
rescue !

In their other plans the revolutionaries succeeded
considerably. About 8,000 Sikh revolutionaries arrived in
India from America, Canada and the Far East in 1915, and the
situation in the Punjab became tense and threatening. “ The
internal situation began to grow menacing,” writes Lord
Hardinge in his memoirs, “ owing to the revolutionaries
realising the military weakness consequent on depletion of
the Indian troops.” Alarmed by the growing menace,
pressure and incursion of the revolutionaries. Lord Handinge,
the Governor-General of India, got the Defence of Realms Act
passed by the Legislative Assembly. Describing this critical
situation, klr. J. C. Ker says : “ Early in the war a serious
situation developed in the Punjab, arising out of the return
from America of Sikhs who had been demoralized by the
teaching of the Ghadr party. During the first three years of
the War some 8,000 Sikhs came back from the United States,
Canada, and the Far East. . . . Several risings were attempted,
and efforts were made in two or three instances to seduce the
Indian regiments. A large number of dacoities and murders
were committed in many of the Punjab districts, and efforts
were made to raise a rebellion.” ^

The War of Independence of 1857 had been suppressed
with the help of the Sikhs. To wash out the odium from
the history of 1857 tliis Second War of Independence was
started by an overwhelming number of Sikh revolutionaries.
They buzzed to imdermine the loyalty of the Indian troops
in India and Siam and induce them to take up the cause of
freedom. There was trouble with the 10th Baluchis of which
the Mashud company shot their officer in Bombay on their
way to Mesopotamia. Revolutionary strongholds were
discovered at Delhi, Lahore and Meerut. The brilliant Vishnu
Ganesh Pingle from Maharashtra was arrested with ten
loaded bombs inside the line of the 12th Cavalry at Meerut

1 Political India, edited by Sir John Cumming, p. 234.

136 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

and was hanged. Conspiracies aimed at robbing the armoury
and magazine of certain regiments were discovered at Lahore,
Pindi and Ferozepore. In Bengal, too, the revolutionaries
were striving their level best to achieve their goal. Writing
about this Mr. J, C. Ker observes : “ Money (from Germany)
was sent to the conspirators in Calcutta, and the nucleus of
a training camp was set up in a remote spot in the jungle.
This hiding place was discovered, and in a fight between the
police and a party of the Bengalis armed with Mauser pistols,
the leader was killed, and the plot collapsed. Another plan
organised with the help of the Ghadr party was to enter
Burma through Siam, and after gaining over the military
police to proceed to the conquest of India.” ^ Armed with
extensive powers and with the help of the 6,000 troops from
Nepal, the British Government ruthlessly suppressed this
heroic rising. There was a holocaust of victims at the altar
of freedom. Some five thousand men were put on trial for
treason in the Punjab alone. Five hundred revolutionaries
were tried by court-martial and executed, eight hundred were
sentenced to transportation for life, ten thousand were
interned without trial, and a large niunber had to remain
underground for years.

Setting aside its previous decision of not transporting the
prisoners to the Andamans, the British Government
transported about 500 revolutionaries, who had thus taken
part, fought and failed in the Second War of Independence, to
the Andamans. Prominent among them was Bhai Parmananda,
who had already come into contact with Savarkar during
the latter’s London days. On their arrival in the Cellular
Jail the revolutionary leaders narrated to Savarkar how his
writings and the great book on ‘ 1857 ’ and his sacrifice bg d
a magic effect in changing them overnight into patriots and
warriors ! The new batch of the prisoners was made of
farmers, workers and businessmen. It was difficult for the
jail authorities to bend them to their will. There were point
blank refusals. Nobody would do hard work. For a time
the jailer and the Superintendent seemed to lower their voice
and the standard of work, and requested them to work as
best as they could. There were scuffles and broils over bad

1 Political India, edited by Sir John Cununing, p. 233.

GENIUS THRIVES IN JAIL 137

words. Words of abuse were returned with blows, and
consequently many noble and spirited patriots from this group
perished in their helpless fight with the cruel jail authorities
in their prime of youth.

During the war period Savarkar made vigorous attempts
to effect his release. He made petitions and appeals to the
Government of India that he should be released with or
without conditions or at least be enlisted in the volvmteer
corps. The authorities knew his intention and were not at
all willing to do so. To them a bird in the hand was worth
two in the bush ! Savarkar asked his younger brother
Dr. Savarkar, in his annual letter why the Indian National
Congress had not uttered a word of sympathy and fought shy
of speaking about the release of political prisoners when
responsible leaders like General Botha released all Boer
rebels or John Edward Redmond struggled and succeeded in
getting all the Irish prisoners released. He wrote to his
brother to agitate in the matter and send a public petition so
that, if at all the release came at any time, it would be
acceptable as a token of the countrymen’s love and
remembrance for those who never ceased to love their land
of birth and rightly or wrongly fell fighting for her. Thereupon
provincial conferences passed resolutions demanding the
release of ‘ political prisoners.’ But it was seen that there was
some vagueness about the phrase ‘ political prisoner,’ prevail-
ing in the Press and the statements of politicians and resolu-
tions of the conferences. Savarkar, therefore, asked his
brother to note that the term political could be distinguished
from ‘ private ’ only by the criterion of the motive of the act
and not by the act itself. He said : “ No act is or can be by
itself political. For even a rebellion, if that proceeds entirely
for my own bread and butter, is not political and ought not
to create any sympathy in others.” So he informed his
brother that the point should definitely be pressed that
“ political prisoners means all those undergoing imprisonment
whether convicted or not, whether for individual acts or acts
in general, for actions which proceeded from purely and
admittedly poHtical motives.” ^

1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 66.

138 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

In his petitions to the Viceroy and Mr. E. S. Montagu,
Secretary of State for India, Savarkar submitted to them that
while they were considering the question of Reforms in
India they should release all political prisoners. Grant of
reforms and grant of amnesty for all prisoners and exiles in
foreign lands should go hand in hand. He said : “ How can
there be peace and contentment and trust in a land where a
brother is torn av/ay from a brother, where thousands upon
thousands are rotting in cage cells and stand exiled and in
jails, and where every other family has a brother or a son,
a father or a friend, or a lover snatched away from its bosom
and kept pining away his life in the parched and thirsty
Saharas of Separation ! ” And if progress is made easy, he
asks : “ Where is the man who would run the ordeals of iire
or would tread the paths of furies with bleeding feet for sheer
amusement ! ” Ho continued : “ That is rare and rarer it is
to find a true patriot and humanitarian who would indulge
in reckless and bloody and necessarily outrageous revolutions
— if but and even when, a safer, nobler, more certainly moral
because entirely effective and employing least resistance —
if but such a Path, the Path of constitutional progress be open
and accessible to him ? ” He added : “ It is a mockery to talk
of constitutional agitation when there is no constitution at
all, but it is worse than a mockery, a crime, to talk of revolu-
tions as if it were a work of rose water even when there is as
elastic and progressive a constitution as, say, there is in
England or in America.” ^

Needle.ss to say, this petition was indirectly and obviously
a pressure on the Government and a support on behalf of
the revolutionary party to the national forces that were
demanding responsible Governn-jent in India. Indian Govern-
ment wanted to know the views of the revolutionary party
on the proposed Reforms and so its accredited leader,
Savarkar, was asked by the authorities to offer his views on
the drafts of the Montagu-Chelniisford Reforms. Even in the
published Draft of Mr. E. S. Montagu’s scheme was expressed
the hope that the revolutionists would now find something to
be done constitutionally for the realization of their hopes and
aspirations and would change their minds and return to
1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans, p. 72.

GENIUS THRIVES IN JAIL 139

useful paths of activity.^ The blood of martyrs never drops
in vain. They die so that humanity may prosper !

Savarkar gives in his letter dated July 6, 1920, a brief
summary of his new petition to the Indian Government and
depicts his ideal of Human Government or World Common-
wealth Viewed from the angle of truth, sympathy, justice,
impartiality and looking to the times, this letter will reveal
why Guy A. /Jdred of Britain claims for Savarkar a place
in the line of prophets and humanists of the world. Those
who boast of their broad-niindedness and large sympathies
and dream of world I'^ederation should pause for a while to
read the following passage from Savarkar and compare it
with their present ideal, for Savarkar declared his ideal
when they were, speaking politically, in their swaddling
clothes. Savarkar observes in 1920 :

** We believe in a universal state embracing all mankind
and wherein all men and women would be citizens working
for and enjoying equally the fruits of this earth and this sun,
this land and this light, which constitute the real Motherland
and Fatherland of Man. All other divisions and distinctions
are artificial though indispensable. Believing thus thiit the
ideal of all political Science and Art is or ought to be a Human
State in which all nations merge their political selves for their
own fulfilment even as the cells in an organism, organisms in
families and tribes, and tribes in nation states have done, and
believing therefore the humanity is higher patriotism and
therefore any Empire or Commonwealth that succeeds in
welding numbers of conflicting races and nations in one
harmonious, if not homogeneous whole in such wise as to
render each of them better fitted to realize, enrich and enjoy
life in all its noble aspects in a distinct step to the realization
of that ideal. I can consciously co-operate with any attempt
to found a Commonwealth which would be neither British
nor Indian but which may, till a better name be devised, be
styled as an Aryan Commonwealth.” He concludes : With
this end in view I ever worked in the past. With this end in
view I am willing to work now. And therefore I rejoiced to hear
that the Government have changed their angle of vision and

1 Savarkar, An Echo from Andamans^ p. 71.

140 8AVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

meant to make it possible for India to advance constitutionally
on the path to Freedom and strength and fulness of life. 1
am sure that many a revolutionist would like me cry halt
under such circumstances and try to meet England under an
honourable truce, even in a half-way house as the reformed
Council Halls promised to be, and work there before a further
march on to progress be sounded.” ^

1 Savarkar, An Echo irom Andamans, pp. 88-89.

CHAPTER VIII

Out of his Grave

1

The World War I terminated in 1918 and soon after a
systematic and persistent propaganda was carried on through-
out the country for the release of all political prisoners.
People, popular leaders and the Press voiced their demand
for the release of political prisoners through petitions, meet-
ings, Conferences, Congress Sessions and in Coimcils. The
National Union of Bombay, Sri Anantrao Gadre, Senapati
Bapat and Sri Shivrampant Paranjpe took a leading part in
collecting signatures of the people on the petition and the
great petition was forwarded to Mr. Montagu, the Secretary
of State for India. The Secretary of State for India rejected
it. The Amritsar Congress demanded the release of all
political prisoners by a special resolution. The District Home
Rule Leagues from Maharashtra, too, wired to the Viceroy
demanding the release of the Savarkar brothers. The royal
proclamation in connection with the royal clemency to
political prisoners issued on December 24, 1919, stated in clear
terms ; “ I therefore direct my Viceroy to exercise in My
name and on My behalf My Royal clemency to political
prisoners in the fullest measure which, in his judgment, is
compatible with public safety. I desire to extend it on this
condition to persons who, for offences against the State or
imder any special or emergency legislation are suffering
imprisonment or restriction upon their liberty.”

According to this proclamation all provincial Governments
opened the gates of their prisons. Many political and ordinary
prisoners were set free from provincial jails and the Cellular
Jail too. Even those who had come after Savarkar or were
his co-prisoners were released, but the Government of India
held Savarkar’s release incompatible with public safety. In
his case all rules were literally and strictly, and many a time
xinjustly, enforced. Ordinary prisoners were allowed to settle

142 SAVARKAR AKD HIS TIMES

on the Island after five years’ imprisonment, but the Savarkar
brothers were singled out as an exception to this rule even
after ten years. All hard-skinned convicts were given light
work, but the soft-skinned Savarkars were given the hardest
possible work from the beginning. After eight long years
Government permitted Dr. N. D. Savarkar to see his brothers
in the Cellular Jail. Savarkar’s wif^ and Dr. Savarkar saw
him in the last week of May 1919. The Savarkar brothers
were startled to find the absence of Srimati Yashodabai, wife
of Babarao Savarkar. The struggling flame of her noble life
had flickered away just two months ago ! And Yashoda
Vahini was to Savarkar his earliest friend, his sister, liis
mother and his comrade — all in one, all at once. She really
died as dies a satee ! Deserted by all relatives, cursed as the
wife of a convict by unpatriotic persons, separated from her
husband, crushed by overwhelming grief, she perished in her
unconscious state with the only thought of the Darshan of her
husband. Another lady, Savarkar ever remembered with
grateful tributes, was Madame Cama who had been a second
mother to his younger brother and stood so nobly and so
faithfully by them in the darkest hour of their life. “ At the
touch of one such faithful, noble, unshaken, loving hand,”
wrote Savarkar, “ one’s heart recovers its belief in Humanity
— belief rudely shaken by the disappearance of the closest
and by the treachery of the truest and by the indifference of
the dearest.” The above-cited interview terminated in an
hour in the presence of the jail authorities, Savarkar being
given some time to speak to his wife separately.

As regards other facilities, Savarkar was given the work
of a clerk and afterwards was allowed to work as the foreman
of the oil-depot and department in the latter part of 1920.
The authorities even allowed him to enjoy at times the
moonlit nights and starlit dawn which he loved so immensely,
in the jail yard with his brother Ganeshpant alias Babarao !
Barrie, who expected to see the bones of Savarkar in the
Andamans, had gone away to lay his bones in safety as he
feared that any one of Savarkar’s followers might blow up
his head in India !

At last the heavy brunt Savarkar bore all along for his
co-sufferers, the rigorous work, imhealthy food, crushing

OVTOFHXSGRAVS 143

anxieties, sapping climate, and the monotonous dreary and
insipid life told upon his nerves. He reached the lowest point
of vitality and was reduced to a skeleton. Chronic dysentery
and diverse other ailments thoroughly invalidated him. He
was, at last, taken to the jail hospital for treatment where
tuberculosis of the lungs was suspected. Till the appearance
of such a crisis in his health, for months he was sinking for
want of medical help and hospital diet. For want of milk he
wetted his rice with simple water. Half-boiled, half-cooked
food he no longer could digest, His brother, Babarao, who
was allowed at this stage to cook for himself, sent him ‘ Dal ’
secretly. But the malady was developing into a dangerous
form. Later, however, in the hospital he was given milk
when he could not digest it ! His diet dwindled to a sip of
milk. His body burnt with constant fever. He grew deli-
rious, often fell into dead faints and was troubled with
hallucinations. Forlorn, forsaken though not forgotten, he
was rotting, w'ithering and pining awa3' in a lonely corner of
the hospital, banned and barred from his near and dear ones
and surrounded by unsympathetic elements. Now death
began to hover over his head.

Yet with a peaceful mind and composed feelings of a true
yogin Savarkar invoked death. He was content with liis
achievements in life. He had seen the world, done his duty
and acted in great events heroically. If the end of life was the
passage to another world-heaven, then he was sure of a
reserved place there as he had testimonials from Lord Krishna
for having done his duty for duty’s sake and if the end of life
was to dissolve the composition of all elements, he was
prepared to immerse them in the Universal oneness !
Wordsworths and Tennysons and Tagores would sing the glory
of these self-experienced true feelings ! Such is the grandeur,
loftiness and piousness of these thoughts !

The jail life of any other Indian leader pales into insigni-
ficance before this horrible tale of Savarkar’s life in the
Cellular Jail. Lokmanya Tilak suffered most, but was at least
enlivened by the availability of writing material, help of a
cook and a special little house. Not to speak of those who
were speechless and peaceless even in ‘ A ’ class rich rooms !
And yet imbending, upright, and exemplary, Savarkar faced

144 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

jail life with great fortitude. He agitated but within the four
corners of the law; he acted resolutely, but skilfully, and
reformed the jail life. At times he had to face mistmder-
standing among his colleagues. But he persuaded them to
realize the facts. Never did he speak ill of his colleagues, not
even of Barrie who inhumanly troubled him. All political
prisoners had respect for Savarkar. The convicts regarded
him as God. His spirit, soul and energy were of a deathless
stamp. Almost all the political prisoners from the Andamans
with rare exceptions bade good-bye to political life after-
wards. Bhai Parmananda and Sri Ashutosh Lahiri who
respectively spent four and seven years in the Cellular Jail
were the shining exceptions ! The permanent effect of this
jail life was seen later in Savarkar’s health, lonely deport-
ment, and his aloofness from the society.

During the two years 1920 and 1921 the release of political
prisoners was still more persistently demanded by Indian
leaders and Indian Press. Sri Vithalbhai Patel raised the
question in the Central Assembly. Sri Dadasahib Khaparde,
while supporting Patel, referred to the cases of the Savarkar
brothers in 1920. Tilak wrote a letter to Mr. Montagu urging
the release of Savarkar. In May 1920 even Gandhiji, stating
that the ‘ cult of violence had, at the present moment, no
following in India,’ wrote in his Young India in favour of the
release of the Savarkar brothers. Bhai Parmananda, after his
release, saw Colonel Wedgewood then travelling in India and
the Labour leader, on his return home, took up the cudgels
on tlieir behalf and expressed the terrible conditions in the
Andamans through the British Press in January and
February 1921. The Rev. C. F. Andrews, too, took up the
cause and wrote a series of articles demanding the release of
the prisoners of the Andamans. Savarkar’s letters from the
Andamans were printed and published in all provincial
organs and given wide publicity. People and leaders were
moved to read the letters. Meantime Dr. Savarkar paid a
second visit to see his brother’s health in the year 1920.

At this juncture the Cardew Committee that had been to
the Andamans for surveying the conditions in jail submitted
its report to the Government of India and consequently
Government decided to close the Andamans settlement.

OUT or HIS CRAVE 145

Savarkar propagated even at the risk of creating temporary
misunderstanding that the colony should be fully developed
and hence prisoners should not express their willingness to go
and rot in Indian jails, rather they should develop and bring
the colony to prosperity.

In 1920 Gandhiji started his non-violent non-co-operation
movement in India. Swaraj was to be won within a year.
Savarkar attacked the queer definitions of non-violence and
truth and emphasized that the Khilafat would prove an
‘ affai ’ — a calamity.^ Under the influence of this movement
some underground revolutionary leaders were inveigled into
appearing before the police and the result was that more
revolutionary leaders were exiled into the Andamans.
Savarkar told his colleagues that the end of politics was
neither co-operation nor non-co-operation. It always hinged
on responsive co-operation ; the goal of humanity was mutual
co-operation, he added.^

In March 1921 the Hon. Sri K. V. Rangaswamy Iyengar,
Member of the Council of State, moved a resolution in the
House that the Savarkar brothers be released. But it was of
no avail. Sri Iyengar said that he was ready to stand security
for Savarkar to assure Government of his good intentions and
honest motives. In the previous month the ‘ D ’ ticket was
removed from Savarkar’s chest.

At last came the day of Savarkar’s return to his beloved
Motherland. The unexpected happened. There was a stir
among the prisoners and the people aU over the island.
Savarkar was overwhelmed with feelings at the thought of
leaving those poor and patriotic hearts. Some of them
stealthily or with the connivance of the guards garlanded him !
Before bidding good-bye to the anxious and devotional faces,
Savarkar gave the sacred oath to the chosen few : —

One God, one country, one goal,

One race, one life, one language.

And Oh ! Look here he crossed out the ferocious gates of
the Andamans amidst the indistinct greetings from his co-
suflerers ! London could not captivate him, Morea could not

> Savarkar, Mazi Janmathep, p. 496.

•■‘Ibid.

10

146 SAVARKAS AND HIS TIMES

carry Kim and the Andamans could not suppress him. The
Mother must feed him. What a ray of hope, a sigh of relief,
and a flash of emotion must have overcome the brothers !
The Savarkar brothers were brought in the steamer s.s.
MAHARAJAH, the Same steamer that had carried them to the
Deathland, and here Savarkar started on his voyage back to
India with his elder brother ! On board the ship a European
Officer presented Savarkar his favourite book, Thomas A
Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. On the fourth day they caught
sight of India ! Savarkar exclaimed, “ Behold Baba, the feet of
Mother Bharat washed by the blue waters of the ocean.” So
saying they reverentially bowed their heads and shouted,
“ Hail Thee Goddess of Liberty ! Bande Mataram ! ” The
same unflinching love for Mother India even after such a great
ordeal !

II

On their arrival the Savarkars were taken to the Alipore
Jail. Savarkar was already a name to conjure with. A
Chinese youth rotting in that Jail asked him whether any
bullet could harm him, for he had heard many romantic
stories about Savarkar. Savarkar replied that a bullet must
pierce him ! One policeman asked Savarkar how many days
he had swum in the ocean ! “ Not more than ten minutes,”

said Savarkar. Those artless simple believing souls got angry
with Savarkar for belittling his own story ! Savarkar belongs
to the line of rationalists and not to that of mystics and hence
he never made capital of his matchless exploits.

No sooner did they arrive in the Alipore jail than the
Savarkars were hit below the belt by the Capital, an Anglo-
Indian journal of Calcutta. ‘ Ditchar,’ writing in the Capital,
alleged that the Savarkar brothers had conspired with the
Germans. Messrs. Manilal and Kher, Solicitors of Bombay,
acting on behalf of the Savarkar brothers, extracted an
unconditional apology from ‘ Ditchar ’ and the Capital.

From Alipore the brothers were separated, Babarao being
taken to Bijapur Jail from which he was released after a
serious crisis in his health in 1922. Savarkar was taken to
the Ratnagiri jail via Bombay. There the same rotation and

OUT OF HIS GRAVE

147

repetition of the rigours awaited him. What facilities he had
secured in the Andamans were now lost. The monotony and
insipid life once again drove him to throw away life, but he
bridled his feelings and regained his balance at nightfall.

In the Ratnagiri Jail Savarkar came into contact with
Khilafat prisoners and Gandhian truth-seekers. Though
brought secretly, they persisted in reading the papers openly
as devotees of Truth, and secured eatables through secret
illegal sources and ate them stealtliily. Their perverted brains
did not mind, they said, if all Hindus became Moslems but
they wanted Swaraj which was now a fact in sight attainable
in a few months’ time. The Kliilafat Pathans in the Ratnagiri
Jail rioted and the Hindu prisoners were saved as they were
forewarned by Savarkar. It was in the Ratnagiri Jail that
Savarkar’s immortal work Hinduiva was written and sent out
secretly and was published under the pen name ‘ Mahratta
The whole movement for Hindu Nation and Hindu polity
is based on this book of Savai'kar. Indeed, this book will bear
out the truth that if there be any political leader in
India who stands on a firm, far-reaching, profoimd, clear-cut,
well-defined and momentous political philosophy, it is
Savarkar alone. Some of his contemporaries looked to the
mystic fads of their inner voices and others acted as
messengers of Russian imperialism. The last chapters of this
book are typically Savarkarian in grandeur, profundity, and
eloquence. The poetical genius that produced the epic poetry
shines through the pages of the book with eloquent reason
and looks for a gleaming future ! This was the need of the
hour, the prescription of an expert doctor ! Reading the signs
of the times, Savarkar timely pointed out the ulcer that was
growing and vitiating the health of Hindusthan. The book
inspired the saintly soul of Swami Shraddhananda and he
exclaimed : “ It must have been one of those Vedic dawns
indeed which inspired our seers with new truths, that revealed
to the author of Hindutva this ‘ Mantra ’, this definition of
Hindutva ! ”

Moved by the great aim, lofty vision and inspired
exposition of the book, Sri Vijayaraghavachari, an eminent
leader of light and learning, remarked, “ Especially the last
chapter is inimitably eloquent and patriotic. I am afraid I

148 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

am unable to find suitable words to describe my ideas
regarding the book, especially the last chapter.” Sri N. C.
Kelkar opined that Savarkar’s thesis on Hindutva unfolded
a new scientific analysis of Hindutva unseen hithertofore !
Later on this book became the Bible of a great movement.
Savarkar’s poems and parts of his unfinished epic also
appeared one by one. One of them is ‘ Gomantak.’ This is
a canto describing the eighteenth century horrors in Goa. In
these poems Savarkar stirs the reader to the core. The reader
shudders. The poems enrage him and his face darkens with
shame. The poet narrates to the reader how under the guise
of love and Humanity the Portuguese in India perpetrated the
vilest misdeeds which were a black tyranny and a disgrace to
Humanity !

Shortly afterwards followed the transfer of Savarkar to the
Yeravada Jail. There he devoted himself to the spread of
literacy and to the development of the jail library, and
propagated his views on the current political questions among
the Gandhian prisoners. Gandhiji was then imprisoned for
sedition in the Yeravada Jail. Savarkar narrated the stories
of the lives of revolutionaries to the prisoners, whose
knowledge of historic events was as hollow as their caps ! He
described their thi'illing deeds, great sacrifices and selfless
services to which, he said, at least their countrymen should
be grateful, humanely if not patriotically ! But they were
struggling to secure special classes for themselves in prison.
Why should they try to understand the sufferings, sacrifices
and service of those dauntless revolutionary souls ? He was
also watchful in the prison about the conversion of Hindus.
He had performed one shuddhi in the Ratnagiri jail and here
he converted one Christian officer and his bride to the Hindu
fold.

The year 1922 passed by. In 1923 at the third Ratnagiri
District Political Conference, Savarkar’s xmconditional release
was again demanded by a special resolution. The Savarkar
Release Committee led by Sri Jamnadasji Mehta agitated and
published one pamphlet ‘ Why Savarkar should be released ’.
A meeting was held in the Marwadi Vidyalaya, Bombay,
and a strong demand was made for Savarkar’s release.
Sri Vithalbhai Patel was in the chair. In 1923 the Indian

OUT OP HIS GRAVE 149

National Congress at its Cocanada Session at last passed a
resolutior, which was moved from the chair, demanding the
release of Savarkar. Now helpful winds began to blow in
his direction. His Excellency Sir George Llyod, the
Governor of Bombay, came with his Councillors to interview
Savarkar. Lt.-Col. J. H. Murray, I.M.S., who was the Jail
Superintendent in the Cellular Jail, was now at Yeravada as
the Jail Superintendent. The conditions of release were
prepared in the light of the discussions held between Savarkar
and H.E. the Governor and his Councillors. After
substituting a few words, Savarkar accepted the conditions,
signed the terms and was released conditionally on January
6, 1924, from the Yeravada Jail. The terms read : —

(1) that Savarkar shall reside in the Ratnagiri District and
shall not go beyond the limits of that District without
the permission of Government or in case of emergency
of the District Magistrate ;

(2) that he will not engage publicly or privately in any
manner of political activities without the consent of
Government for a period of five years such restrictions
being renewable at the discretion of Government at
the expiry of the said term.

The release of Savarkar was hailed with great satisfaction
all over India. Savarkar was taken away by Dr. Bhat to
the City of Poona where Savarkar saw Sri N. C. Kelkar.
Shivrampant Paranjpe, with his changed outlook, appeared
before Savarkar as a distortion of the great revolutionary
apostle ! Paranjpe talked to Savarkar about his proposed
new daily, Nava Kal. Savarkar abruptly remarked with
a pun that he knew only the old Kal !

But all was not yet well. The dark night of imperialism
was still reigning. The owl, popularly known as the old dame
of Bori Bunder, ominously hooted in its current topics, “ At
Ratnagiri he will have predecessor of a very diflferent stamp.
After the third Burmese War, King Thiba was exiled to
Ratnagiri and it was there that he died.” What more humane
and beneficial note can an owl hoot ?

The political situation in India was getting complicated
since 1915. Sri S. P. Sinha, afterwards Lord Sinha, was the

150 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

last Moderate to preside over the Congress. He spoke in
favour of gradual evolution and cautious progress, and his
address proved to be the swan-song of the Moderates as
Congressmen ! The Liberals were the Moderates who had
seceded from the Congress. Their big Gokhale and Mehta
had passed away. The Left Wing was coming to the front.
Mrs. Annie Besant’s Home Rule League and Tilak’s grand
entry into the Lucknow Congress hastened the fall of the
Liberals. On the eve of the Lucknow Session the .shrewd
elements in the Muslim League adopted the Congress ideal
of self-government for India within the Empire. For winning
support of the Muslim League to the Congress, the Congress
made a pact with the Muslim League, conceding them
separate representation and communal electorates. The
Lucknow Pact, after Tilak’s death, unfortunately proved to
be a rift in the lute ! The pact reduced the political problem
to a simple equation. If the Muslim League represented the
Indian Moslems, whom did the Congress represent ? The
answer was all those Indians minus the Muslims. The
Moderates and Moonje opposed this pact from the beginning !
The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were declared on August
20, 1917, and were publi.shed in 1918. The Congress declared
the reforms as disappointing and unsatisfactory. The
Moderates pronounced this scheme a substantial instalment
of responsible Government to be welcomed and improved
upon.

Although Mr. Montagu, the Secretary of State for India,
was of the opinion that the “ separate representation and
communal electorates were opposed to the teaching of
history ”, and “ fatal to the democratization of institutions and
caused disunion between the Hindus and the Moham-
medans he yielded to the Muslim demand as he feared a
Moslem rising if he did not do so. Montagu confirmed the
policy of Morley and Minto and the Lucknow Pact. Gokhale’s
testament also held this view and his skeleton plan recognised
the need for separate and direct representation of Moham-
medans and other non-majority communities ! ^

1 E. S. Montagu, An Indian Diary, p. 100.

"H.H. the Aga Khan, India in Transition, p. 44,

OUT OF HIS GRAVE

151

Meanwhile, the Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919 and the
Government of India took power to arrest and imprison any
individual without trial. Tilak was then in London in con-
nection with the Chiiol case. Martial law reigned in the
Pimjab and roused general indignation. Then came the
tragedy of Jallianwalla Baug and the inaugxu’ation of
Gandhiji’s non-co-operation movement in collaboration with
the Khilafat Movement which was entirely religious, essen-
tially fanatical and historically regressive. At this critical
juncture Tilak passed away ! The fiasco and futility of
Gandhiji’s non-co-operation and the collapse of the Khilafat
movement turned Sri C. R. Das and Pandit Motilal Nehru to
the Assembly with a view to giving organized opposition to
the Government. Kelkar, Jayakar and Moonje who were
sceptical of Gandhiji’s political tactics and who were
awakened by the Moplas’ atrocities and outrages on Hindu
women, men and children in Malabar made common cause
with this part 5 ^ The Liberals in the new Assembly carried
a motion declaring that they wanted a revision or re-
examination of the reformed constitution at an earlier date
than 1929. Hence they were also not liked by Government and
their wisdom with moderation was disliked by the masses who
were awakened to political consciou.snes.s by Tilak and Das.
The strange, enigmatic, and conquering politician in Gandhiji
was about to retire into oblivion for the next five years.
Although it was a fact that Gandhiji’s meteoric rise was due
to his unparalleled gift for organization, the self-centred
multi-millionaires and mill-magnates were not less responsible
for it. In the words of B. C. Pal : “ Mr. Gandhi has not been
helped to his unique influence in the country by merely the
medieval Indian mind, but also by the more practical support
that has come to him from the multi-millionaires and the mill-
masters of his own province who have not been slow to
recognize in him a very efficient instrument for advancing
their own economic and financial interests. They have
exploited him as he himself has, perhaps unconsciously,
exploited them. In the coming Gandhi Raj, if the Gandhi
movement succeeds, we shall have no democracy, but an,

152 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

autocracy of the oriental type dominated by priestly
influences and worked especially for the benefit of profiteering
banias.” ^ Did we realize this in 1950 ?

The Liberals were routed in the election of 1923. They
lacked an organized party. The vociferous Das and Nehru
occupied their places. Savarkar was willing to work the
reforms. He always held that the movement for freedom
should be launched from within and without !

J Quoted in The Problem of Minorities by K. B. Krishna, p. 167.

The Savarkar Brothers

CHAPTER IX

Social Revolution

1

Thus Savarkar was interned in Ratnagiri where the
defeated and dethroned King Theba of Burma had perished.
Two weeks after this memorable event of January 6, 1924,
the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha was established ostensibly
through the influence and attempts of Babarao Savarkar, but,
in fact, inspired by Savarkar himself. The main object of the
Sabha was to organize, consolidate and unite the Hindus into
one organic whole and enable them to oppose effectively any
unjust aggression ; thus while protecting their own cultural,
religious and economic rights, the Hindus were to strive for
the general welfare of mankind, universal compassion being
the basic urge of Hinduism !

The first event of note that took place in the history
of the Sanghatanist Party was the visit to Ratnagiri of
Sri Shankaracharya in May 1924, during the celebration of the
Shivaji Festival. The Sanghatanist Party utilised the great
occasion for arousing people’s enthusiasm for the Sanghatan
movement. But at this juncture plague broke out in Ratnagiri
and their work was hindered. Consequently Savarkar was
allowed to shift to Nasik, the city which he had transformed
into the Jerusalem of Indian revolutionaries. After 19 years
of glorious struggle and long incarceration Savarkar’s entry
into the city was hailed with great enthusiasm by the people.
As a token of their gratitude he was presented with a purse
on behalf of Maharashtra. Dr. Moonje presided over the
function and Sri N. C. Kelkar read out the address.
Sri Shankaracharya sent his blessings on the occasion by
presenting a holy garment to the great patriot. Expressing
feelings of esteem, gratitude and love that Maharashtra
cherished for Savarkar’s heroic fortitude, sterling patriotism
and untold sufferings in the cause of freedom, the address
presented to Savarkar ended with the hope that Savarkar

154 SAVAHKAR AND HIS TIMXS

would soon be a free man to carry on his mission in the
country unrestricted and unhampered. Savarkar carried on
his work for the uplift of the Hindu society in Nasik too.
During his stay at Nasik, he rescued some Mahar Hindus
from the snare of the Agakhani Mohammedans. He also
visited Trimbak, Yeola and Nagar, and propagated his new
Hindu Sanghatanist ideology among the people.

On his return from Nasik in the last week of November
1924, Savarkar devoted himself to public work and propaga-
tion of his ideal from the platform of the Ratnagiri Hindusabha
which was then, as was the Hindu Mahasabha itself, a non-
political body. The late Dr. M. G. Shinde, a sincere and
staunch worker and devoted Savarkarite who stood by his
leader through thick and thin, was Savarkar ’s chief lieutenant.
Different men for different purposes were drawn to him.
Some loved him, some protected him, some spread his
ideology among the people, and others worked and toiled for
him.

Sri Palukaka Joshi, a devotee, copied his master’s
manuscripts, his essays and dramas, articles and writings, and
directed them to the proper places. The late Sri Nanai, a
legal celebrity in the District, Kao Bahadur Parulekar, Rao
Saheb Ranade, Sri Vishnupant Damie, Sri Wamanrao Chavan,
Sri Patkar, Sri Achyutrao Malushte, Sri Narayanrao Khatu,
Sri Haribhau Gandhi, Sri Dattatraya Savant, Sri Atmaramrao
Salvi, Sri Keruji Mahar and a host of others were the pioneer
workers in this movement launched by Savarkar.

Gradually Savarkar began to initiate the people into his
new ideology through the Hindu Sabha. Afire with the new
ideology the Hindus in Ratnagiri began to worship strength,
consolidation, and unity. It was inevitable that such an
unadulterated Hindu movement should upset the mental
balance of the then peerless Gandhian pro-Muslim zealots.
The breath of the movement was against the current fads
and fashions in Indian pohtics passing under the good name
of non-violence and truth. Worship of strength and love for
the Machine age were taboo to the Gandhian faddists.
Naturally the new cult of lathi irritated them much. They
thought that the cult of lathi created communal dishaimony.
The Muslim opposition to this cult and ideology sprung from

SOCIAL REVOLUTION 155

the fear that the resultant force would be used against them.
In reply, the Savarkarian group suggested to the apostles of
the self-abnegation policy to cut their own hands lest they
might strike the faces of the Muslims. Servile philosophy,
the child of fear complex, being not in the blood of the
Sanghatanists, they did not care for the objections of the
faddists, nor did they care for the opposition of the fanatics.
They believed that the real leaders of the Hindus were those,
who had risen even in armed revolt against injustice,
aggression and tyranny in any form ! For the defence of their
natural and national rights, the Sanghatanists said, they
would not only use the force of lathi, but would also await
the opportunity to utilise, if necessary, the fire and power of
machine guns, submarines, aeroplanes and battleships.

In 1927 the question of playing music before mosque raised
its ugly head in Ratnagiri too. In Turkey and many other
European countries wherein Mu.slims live, there is neither ban
nor objection to the playing of music in public places. That
there should be an abundant and abiding respect for all creeds,
faiths, and ways of life is the true key to universal happiness.
But there must bo a give and take on both sides. It is the
duty of the followers of every faith to accommodate, conduce
and contribute to the peace and progress of the world. Here
in this case even (conventionally and legally the Hindus were
entitled to take their processions with music by the mosques ;
still the Muslims raised objection to these Hindu rights. So
the situation grew tense. The Hindus took out their
procession with great pomp and preparedness amidst this
tension and excitement.

The Muslims appealed to the District Magistrate for “ help
He rejected their appeal in these words : “ I do not think

that an amicable settlement is possible, as the Mohammedans
under the influence of some undesirable advice allege that no
procession ever passed the mosque with music in the past.”
The Di.strict Magistrate continued : “ It is unfortunate that
the question of music before the mosque has recently been
the cause of so much trouble everywhere. The duty of the
Executive is clear. It is to afford protection to the peaceful
enjoyment of existing rights and customs to those entitled to
it without fear or favour. I, therefore, agree with the District

156 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Superintendent of Police that Mohammedans have no grounds
for making these applications.” * Obviously the struggle
ended in a triumph for the Hindus. On this occasion Savarkar
reiterated his views that force and fanaticism on the Muslim
side would never solve this problem of music before the
mosque; true understanding and due respect for the Hindu
rights of citizenship on their part alone would mitigate the
evil.

Soon after the decision of the authorities in the aforesaid
episode, the Mushms exhibited placards in a procession
declaring that they did not want Swaraj. The Sanghatanists
said that Allah should read the placai-ds and grant their
prayer ; for the Swaraj of the stamp of Kohat, Malabar and
Gulbarga might never come into existence. The Hindus
said : “ Oh ! friends, you never joined us on the platform,
never accompanied us to the prisons, and never followed us
to the gallows. What else will a reasonable man expect of
you ? In spite of such an attitude, Savarkar every year on
the days of Hindu festivals visited the Muslim and Christian
quarters to promote good feelings between the Hindus and
the other communities. On the occasion of the Dasara
festival, accomjianied by his co-workers, Savarkar distributed
“ gold leaves ” among the Muslim and Christian citizens too.
But these feelings were never reciprocated. The doctrine of
false humility and degraded self-respect practised by Gandhist
Hindus stood at the non-Hindu doors with offers of
supplicant service. And the non-Hindus loved it more than
genuine goodwill and self-respect displayed by Savarkar. Due
regard for self and reasonable self-love constitute the Vtacif? of
virtue. A man of sense and self-respect considers so !

The first and foremost battle on the home front as such
Savarkar had with the Hindu orthodoxy or the Sanatanists
was over the question of mixed-caste schools in the District.
The orthodox Hindus opposed the idea tooth and nail. The
School Board faltered and the District Board failed in its
support.

So Savarkar carried on intense propaganda in favour of
mixed schools through the press and from the platform, and
appealed to the District and Provincial authorities for help

1 Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha, Five-Year Report, p. 41.

SOCIAL REVOLUTION 157

against the forces of orthodoxy which denied the jxist, civic,
hxuuan, and legitimate rights to the children of the imtouch-
ables to sit in public schools along with the caste-Hindu
children. Attention of the Government also was drawn by
Savarkar to the fact that the imtouchables being as good
tax-payers and citizens the touchables, their children were
entitled to the benefit of al! public schools. It was also pointed
out tiiat those very orthodox Hindus did not feel any qualms
of conscience in allowirn t.ie Christian and Muslim children
to sit with their children in the schools.

Savarkar entreated the orthodox Hindus in an appealing
tone not to treat their co-religionists worse than dogs and cats.
“ Can you prevent Christian children from attending public
schools ? No. You dare not. You know the consequences.
The British Government will speak with bullets,” he
challenged. “You insult the untouchables, because they are
ignorant and helpless ; but you yield to the unjust demands
of the Muslims because they are aggressive. When a Mahar
becomes a Muslim or a Christian convert, you treat him as
your equal. But as a Mahar he will not receive the same
treatment. What a shame my countrymen ! ” he thundered.

Savarkar appealed to the District Magistrate to bring the
rowdy elements to book and wrote to him in a moving tone :
“ I wish, sir, to enlist not only your legal protection as a
Magistrate, but also your human sympathies as a gentleman,
in the cause.” It may seem strange that Savarkar should
have written for help to the Government of those days. But
it must be noted that Savarkar is always uncompromising with
untruth and injustice, and not with men and power. The
breath of his ideology is the hatred of oppression in every
form, not of personalities and authorities. The virility and
sincerity of Savarkar in this cause ultimately triumphed. The
District Magistrate saw things for himself, and wrote the
following remark during one of his visits to the schools : “It
is the good result of Mr. Savarkar’s lectures that the
untouchable boys have been allowed to sit mixed and get
their education without any invidious distinction being made
in their case ! ” ^

Then came another shock to orthodoxy ! An untouchable
1 Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha, Five-Year Report, p. 150.

158 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

teacher was transferred in 1928, to a school attended entirely
by caste-Hindu children ! The Sanatanists moved heaven
and earth to get the order of the School Board rescinded, but
to no purpose. The School Board threatened to close the
school and the orthodox Hindus regained their civic sense !
The effect was tremendous and historic. Due to this victory
of Savarkai' over orthodoxy and the establishment of rival
mixed-caste schools by the Hindus, and consequently for want
of new converts, the American Mission working in Ratnagiri
had to wind up its activities, and its chief departed in despair !
Thus ended the first battle at Ratnagiri agmnst orthodo?<y
in a unique victory for Savarkar.

Shuddhi or the Reconversion movement, the main spring
of Sanghatanisni, was also inaugurated by Savarkar in
Ratnagiri and was coming to a head despite heavy odds. Th('
Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha fought its way inch by inch until
the Hindus came to realize the Movement’s democratic sup-
IX)rt to the Indian unity, Indian peace and Indian prosperity in
the peculiar situation obtaining in India. Reconversion adds to
the strength and forces of nationalism and decreases the forces
of communalism, disruption, and disorder. The movement
holds forth immense pregnant possibilities.

The Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha reconverted from the middle
of 1926 and onwards several persons to the Hirfdu fold with
prescribed religious ceremonials. The Christian missionaries
were enraged at this ; so they warned a certain boy, who was
reconverted to Hinduism, not to pass by the mission quarters
lest other boys should catch the contagious idea that converts
could again become Hindus ! The most difficult problem
which ai'ose from this reconversion movement was the
marriage problem of the reconverted persons. The Ratnagiri
Hindu Sabha, in its earlj^ stage, had vigorously supported
the marriage of Sri Tukojirao, Maharaja of Indore, with
Miss Miller, an American lady, and even had expressed its
readiness to arrange for a priest to perform the marriage
ceremony. The Sabha in the beginning got two reconverted
girls married to two Hindu gentlemen under the direction of
Savarkar, who performed the marriage rites himself.
Orthodoxy shook to its roots at this ! Later, during
Savarkar’s internment, about two hundred persons were saved

SOCIAL REVOLUTION 159

from the clutches of non-Hindu Missions. Diseased and
disabled Hindu children were reared up by some Sanghatanists
and were prevented from being handed over to the non-Hindu
forces. The main support of money and sympathy for the
work of Sri Vinayak Maharaj Masurkar, while his reconver-
sion movement was going on in Goa, came from Ratnagiri,
the stronghold of Savarkarism.

The reconversion movement was a war. It really aimed at
bringing the senseless to their senses ! And a war with the
Hindu orthodoxy was a w^u' indirectly with the Maulavies and
Missionaries. Displeased at the new movement of Reconver-
sion, the Muslims and Missionaries lodged complaints against
Savarkai- with the Disti-ict Magistrate, who happened to
be a Muslim, charging Savarkar with creating communal
disharmony and tension in the District. Out went a
thundering rejoinder in the next month from the Ratnagiri
Hindus into the hands of H.E. the Governor of Bombay,
Sir Leslie Wilson, justifying the stand taken by Savarkar
and the cause espoused by him. This neutralised and nullified
the complaints of the opposite camps. Savarkar told the
District Magistrate that if the movement of Reconversion
created tension, why should the movement of Conversion also
be not considered so ? He emphasized that if at all anybody
was to be held responsible for the tension, the Missionaries
and Maulavies should be held so because they had started the
conversion movement first. Reconversion followed the
Conversion movement. Moreover, he added that his was not
an aggressive or unjust movement carried on in the far-off
corners of America or Turkey. He was doing sacred work
in his own country, which had been exploited in her fallen
days by foreign faiths. It was a strange attitude on the part
of a Government that allowed robbers to commit robberies
and prohibited the owners from protecting and defending
their property ! But in this unfortunate land those were the
times when a politician like Mr. Mahomed Ali, who expressed
his unholy desire to divide the Depressed Classes equally
between Hindus and Muslims, from the Presidential Chair of
the Indian National Congress, was eulogised as a patriotic and
a nationalist leader ! And at the same time the Reconversion
movement was decried as anti-national and a force of

160 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

reactionarism, and its leaders from Shraddhananda to Lajpat
Rai, and from Moonje to Savarkar, were decried as
communalists and reactionaries by those so-called rationalists
and ‘ super ’-nationalists, who upheld and regarded the
Khilafat Movement of a frankly reUgious and medieval colour
as a glorious spectacle ! Did not Mr. Yakub Hasan, while
presenting an address to Gandhiji at Madras, openly enjoin
upon the Mussulmans to convert all the untouchables in India
to Islam ? ' And was he not in the eyes of the Congress
more patriotic, progressive and a truer nationalist thiin
Moonje or Parmananda ? To the Congressmen the Khilaiat
leaders, who sent their congratulations to the Moplahs on their
‘ brave ’ fight for religion, were progressive and pati iotic
leaders ! ! Can there be any nationalism worse than this kind
of deceptive and disruptive nationalism ? The “ communal-
ism ” of the Hindu Sanghatanists was righteous ; because it
was bred in self-defence ; the “ nationalism ” of the upholders
and supporters of the Khilafat was perverse, because it
nourished anti-national feelings among the Muslims ! !

n

The question of Temple Entry for the untouchables cropped
up in 1925. The orthodox quarters were alarmed. They
shouted that their Religion, God and Traditions were in
danger. Their religion and traditions and customs welcomed
an untouchable provided he became a Mohammad or a Minto.
The orthodox touched animals like bullocks and buffaloes,
could endure the presence of a dog or a cat in their houses,
but not the presence of their co-religionist Hindu Mahars or
Hindu Bhangis though they were human beings ! ! They
feared that their sacred God would be polluted by the mere
sight of a Hindu Bhangi ! “ He is not God who can be
desecrated ” went the epigrammatic Savarkarian reply to the
orthodox. Savarkar holds that those men, who regard such
inhuman faith as abhors the touch of a human being, and yet
gladly touches animals like dogs and cats, are themselves a
blot on humanity. It is they who are really fallen and not
the “ untouchables ” ! Removal of untouchability, therefore.

J Young India, dated 8-9-1920.

SOCIAL REVOLUTION

161

implies purification and salvation of such misguided orthodox
touchables also !

Orthodoxy began to collapse under such ruthless arguments.
To puU down the steel walls of orthodoxy, Savarkar started
Pan-Hindu Ganesh festivals in 1925. He transformed the
Ganesh Festival started by Tilak into a Pan-Hindu Festival.
An untouchable was not allowed for ages within the precincts
of the Hindu sanctuaries. By and by the question of temple
entry was discussed wiili wisdom and vehemence during the
days of Ganesh Festival The untouchables were brought into
the hall of the Vithoba Temple in Ratnagiri, the most impor-
tant temple in the Ratnagiri District. Then in November 1929,
took place an event of far-reaching consequences. All the city
was agog. The City Magistrate was present by a special
order to see that the proceedings of the public meeting, held
in the Vithoba Temple of Ratnagiri to decide the question of
the entry of the untouchables into the Vithoba Temple, came
off peacefully.

The momentous meeting began. Savarkar’s convincing
speech swept away doubts, hesitation and misgivings which
were lurking in the minds of the opponents.

The Magistrate himself having been carried off his feet by
the force and faith of Savarkar’s speech, forgot his entity,
rose and exclaimed, “ Now who and what remain to be
convinced ? ” None came forward. It was a unique triumph
for Savarkar. Amidst flickering opposition and deafening
exclamations, the untouchables entered the Vithoba Temple
of Ratnagiri, step by step, singing gracefully and gratefully
the glory of “ one God, one goal, one language, one country
and one Nation.” With great feelings and devotional eyes the
densely crowded meeting saw the historic spectacle, the first
of its kind in the history of Hindusthan ! As the age-long
sufferers followed their children who climbed the steps of the
temple one by one, singing the song, their hearts throbbed,
and eyes glowed. The song was specially composed in
Marathi by Savarkar himself for the occasion ! It read :

The Impurity of ages is gone
Scripture-born stamp is tom
The age-long struggle is ended

u

162

SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

The net of enemies shredded
The slave of ages hoary !

Now is a brother in glory !

The Bhageshwar Temple in the Ratnagiri Fort was also
declared open to all Hindus at a meeting held under the
chairmansliip of Shrimat Shankaracharya, the religious head
of the Hindus. Sri Shankaracharya was garlanded on the
occasion by a Hindu Bhangi as the representative of the
Ratnagiri Hindus. The scene was reminiscent of the first
Shankaracharya, who had embraced centuries ago a pantheist
untouchable while returning from his bath in the Ganges !

A Pan-Hindu band was trained and it replaced the
non-Hindu bands. The Hindu band attended festivals and
functions. Women of Ratnagiri performed to the shock of
Maharashtra and Hindusthan their Haldi-Kumkum ceremony
on a Pan-Hindu basis. During the Pan-Hindu Ganpati
festivals a Bhangi Hindu sang Vedic hymns and Gayatri
Mantrarn, the sacred privilege enjoyed so far by the Brahmins
alone. The incident echoed throughout India. The Times of
India, Bombay, styled it as a sacrilegious prize. The event
resounded through some London papers too ! On another
occasion a Bhangi family needed a priest for a marriage
ceremony. The Mahar Hindus being the Brahmins of the
Bhangis, their priest declined to perform the ceremony. The
Hindu Sabha thereupon sent a Brahmin priest, and he
performed the ceremony.

Soon the movement gained gi'ound and grew gradually
popular. While the struggle for opening temples to the
untouchables was forging ahead, Savarkar was thinkin g of
having a Pan-Hindu Temple with a view to giving an impetus
to the temple entry movement. He held that the youths
trained in the new ideology would throw open the doors of
the remaining temples to the untouchables when they would
become trustees of the temples. So he approached Seth
Bhagoji Baloji Keer, the famous temple-builder of Maha-
rashtra, who fervently believed that Savarkar’s inspiration
was God’s call ! He summarily and spontaneously silenced
Savarkar’s opponents by telling them that Savarkar’s name
was Vinayak and Vinayak was the name of God Ganapati ! In

SOCIAL REVOLTJTlOir

163

deference to Savarkar’s wishes Seth Bhagoji built in February
1931 a magnificent temple known as the Patit Pavan Temple
in Ratnagiri wherein aU Hindus irrespective of caste could
assemble for prayers. This was an epoch-making achievement
of Savarkarian movement. This monumental Pan-Hindu
temple was the fust to stand in the history of Hindusthan open
for Pan-Hiudu worship, Pan-Hindu functions and Pan-Hindu
propaganda. An event of new hope, new era, new light, and
new history !

The opening ceremony of the temple came off on a grand
scale. Acharyas, Slianharacharyas, pundits and patriots
declared Ratnagiri a place of pilgrimage. In fact, as one
speaker then put it, Ratnagiri became the new Kashi of the
re-awakened, purified and unified Hindudom where a Hindu
scavenger acted as a priest, persons from the so-called
Depressed Classes delivered Kathas, Mahars read the sacred
Gita, Brahmins garlanded and bowed themselves before these
priests and kathekaries ; and Brahmin youths conducted a
Pan-Hindu Hotel. Indeed, the Patit Pavan Temple came to
be the university of the Pan-Hindu Movement.

Prohibition of one caste from dining with another was the
keystone upon which the arch of the caste system mainly
rested. Savarkar decided to strike a fatal blow at this
keystone. He contemplated inter-caste Pan-Hindu dinners.
As usual orthodox Hindus opposed the idea vehemently.
Savarkar, however, silenced their learned spokesmen by
throwing at their faces extracts from their own scriptures
and Holy Works that sang that God Krishna dined with
Vidura, a son born of a maid-servant, and that their great
Brahmin Rishi, Durvasa, dined along with his numerous
disciples at the Pandavas’ who were Kshatriyas ! Yet, it was
not easy to hold a Pan-Hindu dinner. The movement
developed gradually from private quarters to public places.
And then came off the first public Pan-Hindu dinner
popularly known all over India as Sahahhojan, in a theatre in
1930. This was the acid test to know who were the real
seasoned reformers and who were seasonal. What a horrifying
event it was in the eyes of old traditions ! Upto this time
even the beggars recoiled from touching the food of the
Pan-Hindu dinner. Mahars refused to eat with the Bhangis

164 SAVARKAK AND HIS TIMES

and Bhangis with the Dhors. The Depressed Classes desired
to eat with the caste-Hindus but not with the different
sub-classes from amongst themselves. Onlookers thronged to
see the neo-function, and Ratnagiri was the subject of
headlines all over India.

In its “ current topics ” the Times of India, Bombay, writing
on the subject, observes in its issue of December 9, 1930 :
“ This all-caste dinner was celebrated in a unique manner —
a manner that has given deep offence to Nationalist
Congressmen, who are mostly believers along with Mr. Gandhi
in foiur watertight castes by birth. For, at Ratnagiri some
enthiisiastic reformers, who regarded caste system as the
bane of Hinduism, held an all-caste dinner which was attended
by Brahmins, Banias, Chambhars, Mahars and Bhangis ! ”
Styling it as a bold creed, the writer goes on : “ What is still
more interesting, the spirit of this splendid essay in practical
reform, Mr. V. D. Savarkar, delivered a speech in which he
flung into the teeth of orthodoxy the daring credo of his party.

‘ From today I shall not believe in highness or lowness of
caste. I shall not oppose the intermarriage between the
highest and lowest castes. I shall eat with any Hindu
irrespective of caste. I shall not believe in caste by birth
or by profession and henceforth I shall call myself a Hindu
only — ^not Brahmin, Vaishya, etc.’ ”

Savarkar incessantly preached : “ Eat with anybody. Eat
anything that is medically fit and clean. That does not deprive
you of yoiu: religion. Remember the root of religion is not
the dish or the stomach, but the heart, soul and the blood ! ”
The names of those persons, who took part in the all-caste
dinners, were published in newspapers to the surprise and
shock of their orthodox relations !

The first week of the opening ceremony of the Patit Pavan
Temple saw the biggest of such Pan-Hindu Dinners in India.
The reactions to the Pan-Hindu dinner were tremendous.
Acharyas took to their heels and saints went head over heels.
Cow-worshippers thou^t it beneath their dignity to honour
human beings and eat with men who were their co-religionists !
There were some who did everything else for the movement,
but declined to eat with all classes. Their heads agreed, but
hearts disagreed ! At last their dilemma was solved, when

SOCIAI. RKVOLUTION

165

Savarkar, who held that social reforms settled down more
permanently if they were effected with full consideration and
conciliation, accepted a compromise which allowed the
no-changers to take their dinner by sitting not in the line with
the revolutionary reformists, but in another row facing them.
Orthodoxy clamoured and raised a hue and cry in the city !
Rumours were afloat in the neighbouring villages that the
all-caste dinner would cost the reformers dear and that a rift
was visible in the ranks of the reformers.

When the beggars saw lawyers, leaders, Divans, merchants,
doctors, big and respectable men of all castes sharing food in
a commimion, they, too, expressed their willingness to accept
the Pan-Hindu food which they had declined to accept on the
previous occasion ! But now Savarkar would not offer them
the food unless they also sat in one and the same row irrespec-
tive of castes. And ultimately they did so ! At last Pan-Hindu
sense and mentality came to stay. Karmaveer V. R. Shinde,
a great social reformer of the Deccan, rejoiced to see what
his D. C. Mission aimed at was both preached and practised
in Ratnagiri. Overwhelmed with grateful tears, he acclaimed
Savarkar as the real Patit Pavan of the Hindus, the saviour
of the fallen and trodden. It was a noble appreciation and
correct assessment of a great achievement ! Some leaders,
who witnessed the practical reforms, called Savarkar
Sanghatanacharya — ^Master-brain at organisation — and others
described him as their Skankaracharya, the supreme head of
New Hinduism !

Every revolution has its convulsions and revelations.
Defeated at all other points orthodox Hindus and non-Hindus
now threatened Savarkar’s life. In many families dissensions
arose. Unpleasant words were said and heard between sons
and fathers, wives and husbands. Harsh gestures were
exchanged between friends, and estrangement rankled
amongst relations. Newly married girls were forbidden to
see the faces of their reformist parents, brothers or relatives.
A married girl in one case perished in her illness despite her
father’s fervent entreaties to her father-in-law to send her
to him for medical treatment. The father of the girl was asked
to withdraw his support and devotion to Savarkarian ideology,
but he did not yield !

166 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

Half-hearted reformists were trapped and they repented in
sack-cloth and ashes. If some one from Savarkar’s camp f('U
ill, whispers and vilification would attribute the illness oi-
misfortune to God’s wrath ; and Savarkar would retort that
even his cat was still unaffected. All the while Sax'arkaj-
infused courage into the minds of Iris followers with his
undying dictum: “Reform implies always a minority, custom
means a majority. Have undeviating faith in your mission
and courage of conviction, and you will successfully overcomo
the forces of reactionaries ! ”

III

This was the model moulded in a District-wid<' movemejil
of Savarkarian Revolution which echoed throughout Hindu-
.sthan and had its reverberations even in the London
papers. Savarkar succeeded where prophets, philosophers
and emperors had failed. A man who had to rot for fourteen
youthful years in the most dreadful jail and again was
interned for over another thirteen years in Ratnagiri and was
forbidden to participate publicly or privately in any political
activities, had worked this miracle. All this happened a
c-on.siderable time before Gandhiji made the Harijan uplift one
of the chief planks of his activities !

Savarkar’s approach to untouchability, the age-long cor-
roding current of evil, and his potent remedy and method foj-
its abolition were as rational and constructive as they were
fearless, fundamental and far-reaching. There had been in
the past rationalists like Agarkar, and institutions like the
Arya Samaj, the Brahmo Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj
working for that cause. Later, there followed also the great
personality of Gandhiji in the field. There were some showy,
touchy, and fashionable learned men who expressed lip
sympathy in spotless diction for the Depressed Classes in
order to please and show the ruling bosses their radical views !
But Savarkar’s angle of vision fundamentally differed from
those of such institutions and personalities. Western ideas of
Equality, Fraternity and Liberty dominated the motives of the
rationalist group led by Ranade. Revolt against orthodox Hin-
duism and re-orientalization of Hinduism were the objects of

SOCIAL REVOLUTION 167

the Arya Samaj ; electicisra was the aim of the Brahmo Samaj
and Prarthana Samaj. Agarkar was an unbridled rationalist,
a lonely giant. He had no genius for constructive work. The
Arya Samajists compromised their prophet’s .stand by mixing
their identity with the Gandhian principles, lost sight of its
political impact, and lost their vitality, fervour, and firmness !
Though Gandhij.i believed in the caste system, he wanted to
remove untouchahility. But his Harijan movement was any-
thing but Hindu, though tb money for the cause came mainly
from the Hindus

Gandhiji never raised his Little finger against the pro.sely-
tizing greed of the Maulavies and Missionaries and observed
reticence about it ! But even then it was his fortune that he
received wreaths for his work for the Depressed Classes while
Savarkar faced the wrath of all non-Hindu missionaries !
Like all positive and powerful reformers, Savarkar wielded
the force, construction and hammer of Luthei- ! And a Luther
is not born for laurels. Savarkar 's one aim was to purge
Hinduism of its most baneful superstitions and orthodox
bigotry. His reformative zeal did not aim at the denunciation
of Hinduism. He strove for its revival in the light of modern
times and to ensure its survival. That was why ho was
offensive inside and defensive outside. He aimed at moulding
the different castes of the Hindus into a classless Hindu
society in which all Hindus would be by birth socially, eco-
nomically and p>olitically equal ! Rational, nationalistic and
revolutionary in outlook, his ideology was as deep-rooted as it
was far-reaching, and looked to the prosperity and peace of
the Hindu society, Hindu life, Hindusthan and ultimately
universal welfare. His was not the work of a fashionable
reformer, or a showy rationalist, or a wordy humanist. His
was a mission for a great cause for the emergence of Hindu-
sthan as a world power to play her destined part in the comity
of nations.

Two decades ago he admonished the Hindus to break off
the seven shackles that hindered the progress of the Hindu
society. He fought for temple entry, popularised Pan-Hindu
dinners, naturalised Shuddhi-reconversion, anniliilated the
belief in highness and lowness of birth, favoured intercaste
marriages, and ridiculed the injunctions on caste-ridden

168 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

vocations and sea-voyage. The power and faith of the Savar-
karian movement depended for its vitality and goal upon the
elixir of Shuddhi and Science which hold the key not only to
Indian peace and prosperity, but also to the destinies of the
Middle East and Far East, the one-time tributaries of Hindu
life ! In one of his songs he visualized that the Hindus after
achieving freedom would liberate all subject nations under
the sun, and would help them establish love, equality and peace
for the progress of humanity. And it was towards this end
that all his Sanghatanist movement was directed. Savarkar
preached and worked for the abolition of untouchability with
imparalleled success when few of his great contemporaries
were thinking of the removal of the untouchability, and a
majority of them had not gauged its significance.

Restricted in his activities, shadowed by spies, Savarkar
thus shelled one of the strongest holds of the Hindu orthodoxy
in India. For this signal achievement he applied the battery
of his oratory, poured in his volcanic energy, utilized the fund
of his resourceful erudition and the flow of his volcanic pen.
He used platform, press, examination centres, theatres, circus-
tents, festivals, fares and functions for popularizing the Move-
ment, and whipped the people into a revolt. The forces of
conservatism and orthodoxy tottered before his powerful
personality, and the bees that had nestled in the barriers of
the caste system tried to fling their poisonous stings into his
body, but failed. For, every Luther is born with an impene-
trable armour !

The revolution in the Ratnagiri District was an unparalleled
success; so much so that Karmaveer Shinde, hearing the
news of Savarkar’s unconditional release in May 1937,
remarked that had Savarkar’s activities been restricted to
social revolution only, he would have banished untouchability
altogether from the face of India within five years. Worthy
was the glowing tribute and noble appreciation made by a
writer in a special issue of Dr. Ambedkar’s Janata that
Savarkar’s service to the cause of the imtouchables was as
decisive and great as that of Gautama Buddha himself. Sri
Kakasahib Barve, his contemporary, and President, Maha-
rashtra Provincial Harijan Sevak Sangh, in his Presidential
Address at a Conference at Sangli, in July 1945, expressed

SOCIAL RBVO'UTION 169

the view that had Savarkar continued his intense work in the
cause of the removal of untouchahility, his contribution would
have given a tremendous impetn'T to the movement !

Thus it can be seen that the itality of Lord Buddha, who
raised a revolt against untouc^ ability, the virility of Shivaji,
who purf osefully hammered j!s corners that lay in his way,
the vigour of Dayananda, who strove to bury it, are aU crys-
tallized in the revolutionar’ philosophy of Savarkar whose
approach to the problem xc; predominantly political and
fundamentally social.

IV

Savarkar’s propaganda was not one-sided. With a batch of
his workers, he visited the slums and squalid dens, hamlets
and hills, villages and towns where the untouchables lived.
This batch studied their ways of living, taught them cleanli-
ness, guided them, and worshipped with them. They took
the Chambhars into the quarters and temples of the Mahars
and the Bhangis into the quarters and temples of the Dhors.

The discussions and debates with opponents over the burn-
ing problem of Shuddhi-Reconversion and Hindu organisation
stormed and abated. Stirring speeches and moving appeals
would go on till early dawn. The next morning saw Savarkar
in another village and so his propaganda went on. Savarkar
was then in the best of his health. Men of wealth, distinction
and status followed him climbing zig-zag distances and dales
with cheer. In fact, all the Indian leaders, whose names are
connected with the removal of untouchability, have not seen
as many quarters of the untouchables as Savarkar has done.
The suppressed humanity watched and sat far into the night
with bewilderment and hope, and crowded for the darshan
of Savarkar, the Saviour of the fallen Hindus, who opened
to them the gates of the Temples of God, Man and Light !

Savarkar also attended and presided over the conferences
of the .so-called untouchables. In June 1929 he was received
with great ovation at Malvan in the southern part of the
Ratnagiri District, where he presided over the Conference of
the Depressed Classes of the Konkan Division. The Confer-
ence sang Vedic hymns in a body. Savarkar distributed the

170 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

sacred threads among the so-called untouchable Hindus and
declared amid great applause : “ A battle royal has been
raging for the last seven generations over the right of studying
the Vedas, Here are the Vedas, Here is the sacred thread.
Take these two. Is that all ? Even non-Hindus read the
Vedas, Why should not the Hindu Mahars read them ? The
feud over this problem was a useless task. Let us expiate the
sins we committed. We are all responsible for our political
subjugation. That is the past. Now let us declare on oath
that we shall rectify our past blunders and win back our weal,
wealth and glory.’’ Sri P. N. Rajbhoj, a volatile leader of the
Depressed Classes from Poona, who was present at the Con-
ference, observed : “ I was really sceptical of the Savarkarian
movement at the beginning. My contact and discussions
with Barrister Savarkar and my personal observation have
thoroughly convinced me of its far-reaching effect. I am
extremely rejoiced to declare that this famous leader of the
political revolutionaries is also an out and out social revo-
lutionist ! ”

Another notable Conference was held in the Patii Pavan
Temple at Ratnagiri just after the temple was opened during
the last week of February 1931, under the aegis of the D.C.
Mission led by Karmaveer V. R. Shinde. This was the Mis-
sion’s Sixth Annual Session and Wiis presided over by
Savarkar. All the workers and leaders of the D.C. Mission
and other leaders of the so-called Depressed Classes were
thrilled to survey the achievement of this Savarkarian move-
ment. One after another they acknowledged gratefully that
their dreams were brought into reality by Savarkar in Ratna-
giri. They repeated that if the atmosphere of Ratnagiri
captivated all the parts of India, there would be no untouch-
ability left in the land.

A third Conference was held on April 26, 1931. It was the
Ratnagiri District Somavanshiya Mahar Conference. Savar-
kar presided over it. It was attended by hundreds of Mahars
from all corners of the District. The Mahars had poured in
the city as they heard that ‘ Pandhari ’ was shifted to Ratna-
giri where they were allowed to enter the temple and worship
God — an unbelievable thing for them — a thing for which they
had pined for ages !

SOCIAL REVOLUTION

171

Savarkf r\s teachings and message to the untouchables were
appealing. He asked them to live a simple life, and to shed
their inherent inferiority complex. He admonished tlien) :
‘^Y(air weakness is worse than the wickedness of the caste
Hindus. For your own welfare you must also sufTcr with
fortitude and faith. You want rights, but you are not prepared
to pay the price. Be men. Know that you arc men. If some-
one .scolds you for your proximity on the public road, tell
him that the public road is not the property of his father.
Do not abandon your occunations. Stick to thon and improve
them. Every occupation has its value. Live a dean and
temperate life. Never disown your fathers, saints, and blood.
Do not observe untouchability among yourselves. Always
treat with equality and kindness all the sub-castes amongst
your own so-called Depressed Classes. That is also your duty.
Forget it not ! ’’

Savarkar sounded a warning to the extremist leaders of the
so-called untouchables in particular, who wished to have
Brahmin girls in marriages for untouchable youths. Savarkar
considered this view to be mistaken, extra^'agant, and un-
justifiable. To break off the barrier of caste system, he
observexi, in respect of marriages did not mean compulsory
and forced marriages. According to him many things besides
caste governed matrimonial alliances. “ If a Hindu girl,” he
wrote, “ selects as her husband any Hindu youth who does not
belong to her caste or vice ver.sa and if the couple is other-
wise fit for matrimony the marriage should not be condemned,
nor the couple be regarded as outcast on that account alone ! ”
As for the marriage of a Hindu with a non-Hindu, he was
opposed to it if it took place without bringing the partner
into the Hindu fold. According to him such a precaution was
necessary for the collective good of the Hindu Nation.

Savarkar’s love of Hindu religion was not narrow-minded
either. He said : “ When a non-Hindu worships or a Moham-
medan merges into humanity melting his religious libido, the
Hindus, too, shall dissolve their separate entity.” “ Till then,”
Savarkar observed, ‘^it is necessary that the Hindus should
be within their bonds. It is against the creed of humanity
itself, if we ignore stark realities of life.”

172 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

To the so-called caste Hindus his piece of advice was that
they should be prepared to adopt even the pursuit of
sweepers. There should be no monopoly in any field. He
advised the non-Brahmins to administer to their own religious
and sacramental life themselves and told them that there was
no need of an authorised intermediary between them and God.
“ The moment you resolve not to invite the Bhat (Brahmin)
to perform religious functions, Bhatshahi collapses like a pack
of cards,” he wrote. Learning and expounding the scriptures
or sacerdocy should not be the monopoly of one particular
class. Prestige and authority should be justified by individual
achievement and not by caste, he opined. Priests, irrespective
of caste, should be certified as are our doctors, asserted
Savarkar.

V

Savarkar’s life in Ratnagiri was full of other activities also.
It was in Ratnagiri that the famous Pan-Hindu anthem vras
composed by him and was first sung. Ratnagiri is the birth-
place of the Pan-Hindu Flag which was first flown by Sri
Ramananda Chatter jee. President of the All-India Hindu
Mahasabha at its Surat session in 1929, and was ultimately
adopted by the All-India Hindu Mahasabha as the Pan-Hindu
Flag at Lahore in 1936. It was the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha
that remembered and sent its grateful homage to Nepal then
the only Independent Hindu Kingdom in the world and
appealed to her to make her arm stronger for the sake of
Hindudom. It was the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha again that
declared Nagari script and Sanskritised Hindi to be the
National Script and Lingua Franca of Hindusthan !

Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha did a tremendous work in the cause
of Swadeshi also. Savarkar and his colleagues visited the
market places, lanes and by-lanes, and sent children selling
and propagating Swadeshi articles as hawkers do. Savarkar
himsdf saw individually every shop-keeper, entreated and
insisted on the purchase of Swadeshi goods like soap, sugar,
bangles, paper and many other articles of Indian make. One
can easily imagine what amount of humiliation, exhausting
patience and personal pecuniary loss Savarkar must have

SOCIALREVOLUTION 173

undergone at the hands of insolent, illiterate and even so-
called progressive but unpatriotic countrymen !

It was again Savarkar who attracted with great persuasion
the Hindus to the trade of Bed-making. To that end he him-
self learnt the art of carding cotton with the carding-bow.
He then induced Hindu youths to follow the vocation and
thus the Ratnagiri Hindus had beds prepared by Hindus.

The most vociferous and effective was the movement
launched for the purification of the Marathi language. The
question had been agitating great minds for decades. But it
was left to Savarkar to crown the movement with triixmph.

Shivaji had set up a committee to compile a Dictionary of
pure Marathi words. The Rajyavyavdharkosh was compiled
by Raghunath Pandit and others appointed by Shivaji the
Great. The rise of the English Language added to the difficul-
ties of Marathi which had been, to a great extent, already
influenced by the Urdu and Persian languages. A nation
must keep its mother tongue alive, its cherished heritage un-
defiled, its values and cotmotation unaffected. In the life of
every nation the problem of purification of its language does
arise. There has been a growing desire for the original and
native forms of mother-speech in England too. Stating that
there should be as much reverence and affection for one’s
native tongue as for the country and home, Frank H. Callan,
author of Excellence in English, observes : “ As we naturally
and rightly resent and stand against all foreign incursions
that may injure and corrupt the land of our birth and the
scene of our infancy and childhood, desiring nothing so much
as to preserve their integrity and familiar attractiveness, so
in like manner we ought to guard nothing more jealously
than the primitive purity and individuality of our language.” ^

Mr. Callan tells us that Defoe was against Latinized syntax
and style of Elnglish. Swift employed his genius to resist Gaelic
foreign tendencies in English prose. Gibbon was saturated
with French; Johnson gave undue preference to Latin; and
Carlyle was full of German constructions. All the three, says
Callan, impeded the movement.^ Lamb played an important
role in the purification of the English language and Dryden

1 Frank H. Callan, Excellence in English, p. 370.

2 /bid., p. 383.

374 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

and Shakespeare were pure English writers. So was
Newman.

Ireland’s great movement for the revival and resurrection
of her mother tongue and its purification is too well-known.

In India the flag of the momentous movement of purification
of the language was unfmded by Savarkar. Savarkar was
against Urduised and Persianised Hindi or Marathi, as they
eliminated Marathi and Hindi synonyms and impoverished
the Marathi and Hindi Languages. He, therefore, launched
a movement for the purification of the Marathi language.
Battles were joined on the issue. After an untiring cainpaigi^
the rational and national importance was realized and some
of the opponents turned into its supporters. Some spineless
ones conceded the principle, but fastidiously liiggled about tlie
details. Some came to respect it, and still a few croak
against it.

But the Maharashtra Literary Conference at its Jalgaon
Session accepted the principle of purification of the Marathi
language. Dr. Patwardhan, D.Lit., a great Marathi poet, was
first enamoured of foreign woixls. But when he was convinced
of the righteousness of Savarkar’s stand, he re-wrote his
poetry in undefiled Marathi ! Such was the glow of Savar-
kar s movement. New words were coined. Dictionaries oi
pure Marathi words to substitute Urdu and Persian words
were compiled and published by Bhide Guruji and Dr. Pat-
wardhan. The words gained ground and public sanction.
The critics, too, unwittingly influenced by the psychology, are
helping the movement by using the new words, and thus the
purification of Marathi has come to stay.

Savarkar did not stop here. His movement was essentially
an All-India urge. Hence he suggested that all those, who
stood for pure Hindi and for the preservation of the purity
of the Indian languages, should meet in an All-India Confer-
ence to devise ways and means, and launch a nation-wide
movement for the purity of the Hindi and other languages.
Savarkar also suggested reforms in the Devanagari script and
reduced it to fifty-six letters for the convenience of the press.
In respect of the Nagari script, he made an appeal to all
provincial newspapers to print in every issue at least two
columns of matter in their provincial languages in the Nagari

SOCIAL REVOLUTIOK 175

script. If all the provincial languages of India are printed in
the Nagari script, what immense cohesion, understanding and
advancement will be achieved ! It is said that Dr. Ambedkar
holds the same view on the subject. It has been the charac-
teristic of great Maharashtrians that they never disagreed
on fundamentals, although they might have differed in
degree. Tilak, Gokhale, Kelkar and Ambedkar all exhibited
ultimate unity in essentials and liberty in non-essentials.
Their objects were one, though their means at times differed.
The movement of the i/^rification of language scored its
triumph when Hindi wiJi’ Devanagari script was adopted
by the Constituent Assonibl> of India as the Lingua Franca
of India in preference to Hindusthani, another name of Urdu.

Savarkar’s stay in Ratnagiri attracted several pundits and
patriots of all-India fame. One of the early visitors to
Savarkar in Ratnagiri was the great founder of the R.S.S.,
Dr. K. B. Hedgewar. Tlie interview took place in 1925 at
Shirgaon, a village on the outskirts of Ratnagiri. Savarkar’s
monumental work Hindutva giving ideas of the fundamentals
of Hindu Nationalism and Hindu State had just appeared on
the scene and captivated and inspired many great brains and
great hearts. Before starting the volunteer organisation
known as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Dr. Hedgewar
had a long discussion with Savarkar over the faith, form and
future of the organisation. A great Hindu leader and an
unbending upright nationalist, Dr. Hedgewar wanted to
conserve and dir€?ct the energy of Hindu youths towards all-
round uplift of the Hindu Nation. After the collapse of the
Non-co-operation Movement of Gandhiji and the fiasco of the
Khilafat Movement, the country lay prostrate and chaos and
confusion reigned in the student world. In the wake of this
confusion and in consultation with Savarkar and others,
Hedgewar decided to build up an organisation to supply the
Hindu society with power and pillars.

During his visit to Bombay in September 1924, Savarkar
came across Maulana Shaukat Ali. The Muslim leader paid
glowing tribute to Savarkar for his patriotism and sacrifice,
but he said that he disliked Savarkar’s Hindu Sanghatan
ideology, and wished that it should be stopped. Thereupon

176

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Savarkar asked the Muslim leader to stop his Khilafat Move-
ment first if he wanted him to stop Hindu Sanghatan Move-
ment. Shaukat Ali replied that the Khilafat Movement was
the breath of his nostrils. Savarkar told him that as long as
there were separate organisations for the Muslims and the
movement of conversion was carried on by them, so long the
movement of Hindu Sanghatan and the propaganda for re-
conversion would go on unabated. Then the Muslim leader
told Savarkar that the Muslims had many other countries
and they would leave India, if inevitable. Savarkar at once
answered back, “ O quite freely. Why do you wait ? The
Frontier Mail is daily running towards that direction ! ”
Shaukat Ali was now quite nervous. While taking Savarkar’s
leave, he cut a joke to make up the loss he suffered in argu-
ments with Savarkar. With a bitter tone he said he was a giant
and Savarkar was a dwarf and that he could punch Savarkar
easily. “ Here,” said Savarkar sharply, “ I am not disinclined
to accept your challenge ! Come on ! You know Shivaji
was also a dwarf before the giant Afzulkhan. They had a
meeting ! And everybody knows what was the history
afterwards.” The Muslim leader lost his face and stepped out.

Here is one of the most important interviews Savarkar had
during his internment. Gandhiji saw Savarkar in March 1927
at the latter’s residence in Ratnagiri. It was after nearly
eighteen years that Gandhiji was now meeting his old oppo-
nent of London days. However of different stamps, the great
ones recognise great forces. The real object of Gandhiji was
to see whether the revolutionary volcano was now extinct,
or a spent force, or still burning. During the course of the
interview, Gandhiji told Savarkar with a pleasant smile that
he would have stayed with Savarkar in Ratnagiri, the birth-
place of Tilak, and the abode of Savarkar, for a day or two
had his programme been not already fixed. Savarkar replied
that he would have also been glad to entertain him, but agreed
that Gandhiji should go on with his great mission of arousing
the nation’s enthusiasm for the Freedom Movement, as
Gandhiji was fortunately free to do so. Then the problem of
Shuddhi was discussed and the conversation between the two
leaders ran as follows : —

Savarkar : Well, what are your views on Shuddhi ?

SOCIAL REVOLUTION 177

Gandhiji : To me the view that a man loses his religion
is absurd.

Savarkar : In a way you are right. But as our caste
system and tradition have laid down that under certain
circumstances a man loses his religion, it is necessary to
set the matter right by adopting such remedies and rites
as would enable us to restore the reconverted man to his
society. Wliat is the harm in doing such a thing ? Both
the society and the new-comer thei’eby get mental
satisfaction.

Gandhiji : I have no ol»jeotion. It will do no harm if you
have .such a ceremonj'. But although I believe in recon-
version of a person, who was forcibly or deceitfully
converted to an alien faith, I am not for reconversions of
persons whose ancestors have changed faiths decades ago.
Nor do I uphold the conversions of persons from other
religions. Because I believe that it is better to die while
observing one’s own religion than to embrace other
religion. None should be persuaded to change his or her
faith. It should be left to the will of the person.

Savarkar : Yes, after weighing carefully what is good for
the betterment of one’s own happiness, a man should
decide the means. 'That is freedom of thought. The mes-
sage of Hinduism is practical as well as spiritual, passive
as well as active. It says on the one hand that it is better
to die under the domain of one’s own religion, and on the
other, that it is better to transform the world into an
Ai’yan Religion.

Gandhiji ; The aim of both of us is the same. We both
strive for the glory of Hinduism and Hindusthan.

Gandhiji was now doubly sure that the faith and fire in
Savarkar was unaffected even by the tortures and tribula-
tions of the jail life in the Andamans. This was the last talk
between Gandhiji and Savarkar. Though Savarkar was
released afterwards in 1937, and made a whirlwind propa-
ganda through the length and breadth of India as the leader
of the Hindu Mahasabha, no occasion arose for a meeting
between the two leaders.

Dr. Ambedkar, who had been to Ratnagiri in connection
with a law suit, had a talk with Savarkar. Savarkar had

12

178 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

arranged for a public meeting, but on a telegraphic message
from Bombay, Dr. Ambedkar left for Bombay. Young leaders
of the spirit and heroic stamp of Sri Achyutrao Patwardhan
showed deep regard for Savarkar. During the blooming days
of the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930 he discussed some
points with Savarkar. When the yoimg khadi-clad leader
doubted the possibility of regaining Independence by an
armed rising, Savarkar asked the charkha-general, “ Then
friend, teU me how you are going to win back the indepen-
dence by charkha ! ”

Senpati Bapat’s visit to Ratnagiri was memorable. Though
Bapat had been to Ratnagiri to preside over the Ratnagiri
District Political Conference, he refused to attend any work
regarding the Conference before he had paid his respects to
Savarkar. And Bapat clung to Savarkar as devotionally as
Bharat embraced Ramachandra in the exile. Bapat then
opened the book of his life before his leader since the days
of his voluntary exile and the transportation of his leader,
Savarkar. It was in Ratnagiri that Sri N. C. Kelkar agreed
with Savarkar and promised to introduce part of Savarkar’s
reforms in the Devanagari script, and well did he fulfil his
promise when he started his new Monthly, Sahyadri.
Dr. Moonje, too, paid a visit to Ratnagiri. His regard for
Savarkar approached reverence. Some years after he even
told a Viceroy that to him Savarkar was next to Shivaji.
Bhai Parmananda’s visit to Ratnagiri was more of a personal
character than a public one. Savarkar’s right-hand man of
London days, Sri V. V. S. Aiyer, met him in Ratnagiri after
fifteen years. Sri Gyanchand Varma of London fame, Sri
Sachindranath Sanyal, Sri Nani Gopal of Andaman fame,
Sri G. V. Mavlankar, now Speaker of the Indian Parliament,
Dr. Madhavrao Patwardhan, D.Lit., Dr. Ketkar, encyclopaedist
of Maharashtra, too, paid their respects to Savarkar at
Ratnagiri.

The Chitpavan (Brahmin) Vidyarthi Sahayyak Sangh
requested Savarkar to address their annual meeting. Savarkar
told them that he could not join an institution, which stood
purely for a particular caste. He added that he would accept
their invitation provided they adopted a change in their
constitution to the effect that in the absence of a worthy

SOCIAL REVOLUTION 179

Chitpavan Brahmin student, any deserving Hindu student
would be awarded the scholarship. They did so and Saveirkar
agreed. Once at Malvan, a town in the southern part of the
District, one ‘ Humanist ’ asked him whether he would like
to be a member of his ‘ Human Religion ! ’ A broad-minded
Hindu as he was, he replied in ihe affirmative, and asked if
there was really such a force as ' Human Religion ’ under the
sun when a State like Russia invested with a universal urge
was extending its frontiers and desiring to bomb the workers
of other coimtries. Savarkar always likes to be a realist
rather than a man of clouds even at the risk of being branded
as a communalist.

Among the other leaders, who visited and interviewed
Savarkar in Ratnagiri, the only man who impressed Savarkar
most was Dr. Ketkar. That is why while paying an obituary
tribute to Dr. Ketkar’s memory in the literary circle at
Ratnagiri in 1937, Savarkar marvelled at the fathomless brains
in the small skull of the Doctor ! A lion alone stops at a lion !

Mr. Yusuf Meher Ali then in the shell of Socialism saw
Savarkar in Ratnagiri and to his bewilderment Savarkar took
him to the inside of the Patit Pavan Mandir, the Pan-Hindu
temple. It was no wonder that rationedist Savarkar should
do so.

The visit of the President of the All-India Gurkha League,
Sri Thakur Chadan Singh, to Ratnagiri along with a represen-
tative of the Royal Family of Nepal was most rousing and
thrilling. It was the outcome of the contact established by the
Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha with Nepal. It was significant that it was
the Maharashtrian statesmanship that viewed the importance
of Nepal on the political and physical map of India with great
concern. It is well-knoAvn now that Tilak had deputed his
heutenant Kakasahib Khadilkar to Nepal in 1903 to open an
arms factory there. Khadilkar began his work under the
guise of some mercantile pursuit, but his project was scented
by the British Government, and Khadilkar was compelled to
return to Poona without accomplishing his object.

It was very strange that the Congress, which fought for
Turkey’s Khilafat and sent a few bottles of medicine to Chiang
Kai Shek in China and a few bushels of grain to Communist
Spain, should deliberately neglect Nepal, a State so much

180 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

interested in India’s destiny and geographically, religiously
and culturally a part and parcel of India. Nay, the Congress-
ites consider^ it nothing less than a foreign State.

The importance and impact of the Gurkha leader’s visit to
Ratnagiri did not escape the British Government’s vigilance.
Savarkar was asked by the Home Department, Bombay, to
submit his explanation and to communicate the speech he
made at the time of the reception of the Gurkha leader. He
did it and nothing came out of it. However, Savarkar was
finally warned that his explanation was not satisfactory and
that any further breach of the conditions imposed upon him
would compel Government to make him undergo the remain-
ing period of his transportation — ^about 37 years, if he referred
to politics publicly or privately ! Government demanded
similar explanations from Savarkar on many other occasions.
Every speech of Savarkar was reported to the Home Depart-
ment, Bombay, through the District Magistrate. On important
occasions Savarkar dictated the summary of his important
speeches to the District Magistrate as a precaution. The mere
word ‘ Swaraj ’ or ‘ Raj ’ in his article or speech was highly
resented by the British Government and many a time he was
threatened with dire consequences. To return to the Gurkha
leader’s visit. The Gurkha leader was tremendously impres-
sed by Savarkar. Hearing and seeing Savarkar, the Gurkha
leader said : “ I have now come to realise what Napoleon
must have been ! ”

And indeed Napoleon and Savarkar, the inveterate enemies
of the British Empire, suffered the greatest humiliation and
mental and physical torments at the hands of the British
Power than any other adversary of the British Power which
squandered crores on Napoleon and lakhs on Savarkar to
crush their undying personalities to a slow tortiuous death.
But undaunted, heroic and invincible as both these heroes
were, they worked and struggled with wrath and righteous-
ness for the downfall of the British Empire. In fact, Savarkar
had the fortime to see the sun set on the British Empire and
in the end his country free and independent !

CHAPTER X

Rationalist and Author

I

Modern civilization is th» atcome of scientific research and
progress. Science and Der io^racy are two great potential
forces in the modern wo) d Democracy defines the shape
and aims of social and political endeavour. It strives for a
good, just, equitable and progressive life. Good and
progressive life demands an equal and proportionately just
enjoyment of all the material and cultural resources and
possession. Those possessions and resources are brought
within the reach of men by science which controls the laws
and forces of Nature and bends (hem to the services of men.
While bringing about this change, science emancipates the
mind of man from the bondage of superstition and ignorance.
Thus science plays a dominant part in the reconstruction of
every country’s life and economy, and solves its crucial
problems of food, clothing, shelter, security, and peace.

Savarkar holds that the greater the domination of
superstition the lesser is the tendency of the people towards
science. So he raised his mighty pen against superstition from
which flowed Voltaire’s satire and emanated the force of
Luther ! Voltaire venerated nothing while Savarkar, like
Swift, did his job with devastating candour. Voltaire smashed
the ancient idols ; Savarkar swept them into a corner as
historical and cultural monuments for record and research.
Voltaire disfigured the idols, Savarkar debarred thern.

Savarkar ’s outlook is absolutely modern and scientific. He
shows the fallacy and hollowness of time-worn and scripture-
born arguments. He denounces the ideologies that describe
the machine as a device of the devil invented to spite the glory
of God and to strike a blow at the influence of religion and
make man feeble, mechanical, helpless and heartless, leading
him to his final doom. Savarkar pierces the Kripan of his
reason through this false propaganda of ignorance. So he is

182 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

to Maharashtra what eighteenth century great European
reformers were to Europe.

About the God of Man and the Lord of the Universe, he
has peculiar views. According to him we live in this world,
but the Universe has nothing to do with us. The belief that
what the Lord of the Universe likes is good and what lie
likes must be beneficial to the progress of Man, is useless,
because it is not true. The forces in the Universe are to a
little degree for Man. but to a greater extent they are against
him. What man can do at the most is to learn the laws of
the Universe as best as he can, and turn them to his benefit
and welfare. This is, he sums up, the real worship of the
Universe.

In his view whatever contributes to human good is good,
what is derogatory to the progress of humanity is bad. The
definition of morality should be framed, he says, in reference
to the common good of mankind. If God is kind enough to
take a man out of danger, and is all pervading, who first
throws a virtuous man into the flames of danger, he asks.
Who sinks steamers full of men, children and women despite
heartfelt prayers ? Who sets conflagration to the woods and
roasts the birds, reptiles and other creatures like fishes ?
Savarkar says why does God make the wicked so powerful
as to be in a position to harass the good ? If God is omniscient
and most kind, does he not know the innocence and purity
of that good man beforehand ? Why does he at all test the
virtuous man through cruel and fierce ordeals ? In this
respect Savarkar is more agnostic than Ingersoll, and more
balanced than Agarkar, the giant rationalist of Maharashtra.

Savarkar feels sorry that Superstition should hold its sway
in our land even during the twentieth century. He observes :
“ We have allowed the Britishers to crush everything that was
with us, but not that precious possession of ours ‘ Our
credulous superstition ’ ! ” “ Let an earthquake occur, public
prayer is our remedy. Let a patriot suffer from sickness, we
go to attend a crowded prayer-meeting. Let a pestilence
ravage our land, and we kill goats in sacrifice to ward off the
calamity. It was quite all right when we did not know the
causes of such things, but to stick to these superstitions even

RATIONALIST AND AUTHOR 183

when science has revealed the causes of such calamities is
simply absurd,” wrote Savarkar some years ago.

Savarkar asks the Hindus to follow the cause and effect
theory tiiat is never disturbed by the thought of Divine
pleasure or displeasure. He points out to the people that
water boils at a certain temperature and God never interferes
in this process ! Oxygen and Hydrogen combined in proper
proportions, are bound to yield water any day of the year
whether God wills it or not ! He proceeds : “ With the aid
of science, even Godless Fnssia is actually floating castles in
the air in the form of aeroplanes and giant super-fortresses.”
“ What actually matters is scientific accuracy and not
Astrological superstition. Astrology cannot save what .science
has doomed and where safety is assured by science, Astrology
cannot endanger it,” he observes, in his brilliant article
entitled, ‘ Machine is a boon to Mankind.’

Savarkar tells the people that it is time for them to realize
that ‘ Sacrifice ’ cannot bring rains, nor can it avert a famine.
He appeals to the Hindus to discard the superstitious and
religious aspect clinging to their usages regarding maternity
and asks them to send their women to well-equipped, well-
lighted, modern maternity homes instead of galling them in
dark, dingy and smoky rooms. He suggests that the corpses
should be carried in a car in a decent manner and burnt with
electricity.

Such a lover of science was bound to condemn the anti-
machine attitude of Gandhism with its charkha fads. To
Savarkar a telescope is a human eye with its capacity of vision
increased a thousand times ; a telephone is but a human ear
with an enormous increase in its power.

“ Machine has made man stay beneath water, rise high up
in the sky. Machine has made man far-reaching, far-seeing,
far-speaking and far-hearing. Machine has conferred upon man
blessings which no prophets could give or no penance could
secure. Mcuikind owes its present civilization entirely to the
use of machine, and thus machine far from being a curse, is
a wonderful boon which has bestowed supernatural powers
upon this hiunan race ! ” observes Savarkar. He appeals to
the nation that it is the duty of every thinking man to press

184 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

the cause of science in every department of life. Without
it, no nation can hope to survive the present stage, he adds.

To Savarkar science by itself is not responsible for the evils
of Capitalism or the destructive orgy of modern war technique.
It is the fault of the ways of distribution, lust for domination,
and greed for exploitation. Electricity can light a bulb or
detonate a bomb for the destruction of a city. Savarkar says
that the evil should be checked. In short, not warfare but
welfare of humanity should be the ultimate goal of science.

Savarkar stands for science and absolute science. He stands
for TODAY and not for the blind traditions of yesterday. He
appeals to the Hindus to test all their ancient holy works on
the touchstone of science. He writes ; “ We do not regard
the ancient works as all-pervading, omniscient and perfect by
themselves. The Smritis and the Vedas we love reverentially,
not as omniscient and unchangeable works, but as historical
books and as the landmarks in the great and glorious journey
of the human race.” He asks the Hindus, therefore, to test
the knowledge in the ancient holy works, their laws and
learnings on the touchstone of science and to follow fearlessly
what contributes to the good of the nation.

To Savarkar no animal is Divine. Even the cow is meant
for man ; not man for the cow. Not cow-worship but cow-
protection is our national asset. He denounces the viewpoint
of the Hindu leaders of the past, who, for saving the lives of
a handful of cows, lost their kingdoms, their human rights,
and their all. He, therefore, observes that if it is inevitable
in a grave crisis to live upon beef and save human lives in
India, the Hindus should also do it. The prosperity of a
nation does not depend upon its capacity for penance and
yoga, love of justice, or sense of virtue. History is replete
with innumerable instances, he writes, which show that the
wicked, cruel, unjust, and inhuman kings, conquerors,
democracies and republics have smothered the weak kings
and powerless democracies, though the victims were just,
human and non-aggressive. Discipline, dry gunpowder, the
range of guns, the edge of swords and an unflinrbing will are
the factors that protect the rights and liberties of a nation.
Justice and injustice have no relation to victory or defeat.
Victory and defeat are quite different from justice and

RATIONALIST AND AUTHOR 185

injustice. If victory and defeat have at all any relation with any
other thing, it is ^'alour, observes Savarkar. But this worship
of strength, power and discipline, Savarkar say.s, should not
be used for aggressive and greedy aims. He slates that
justice, if weak, is futile and lame. It goes under. Injustice,
if powerful, tramples upon it.

These rational views of Savarkar have impressed many
pei'sons and leaders of socialist and communist leanings. They
acknowledge this Savarkar to be the rationalist leader of
Maharashtra. In fact, in the domain of realism, rationalism and
revolutionism Savarkar has surpassed Ranade, Tilak, Agarkar
and Dr. Ketkar, the giant thinkers of Maharashtra. Sri S. K.
Kshirsagar, an eminent and fairly unbiased literary critic in
Maharashtra, observes that Maharashtra produced two great
leaders of ‘ Thought.’ They were Savarkar, and Dr. Ketkar,
the compiler of Marathi Dnyanakosh. “ Savarkar’s matchless
heroism,” he writes, “ and ideal patriotism had won a name
and fame even before the transportation of Tilak to Mandalay.
But Savarkar’s all-pervading political philosophy became
known after Tilak’s death. Though Tilak was revolutionary
in action, his thoughts on history, social philosophy, and poli-
tics were not as deep-rooted, fundamentally revolutionary and
volcanic as those of Savarkar.” ’ When a leader is accepted,
Kshirsagar goes on, people have to change their entire line
of thought, and Maharashtra learnt this for the first time in
history from the leadership of Savarkar. Telling that Savar-
kar was the first and foremost ‘ leader of thought ’ of Modern
Maharashtra who gained a wide following, Kshirsagar further
remarks that had Savarkar’s followers been truer to his
philosophy than to its mere glorification, a far greater cult
than that of the Sikhs or the Arya Samaj would have sprung
up cdl over India in the form of Savarkarism. The critic’s
assessment is rather a little pessimistic and less detached.
Pioneers of a great cause, precursors of a revolution and
prophets of a new order have never prospered in their own
age !

^ K. B. Kshirsagar, Suvarnatula, p. 129.

186

SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

II

As a man of letters Savarkar has no equal in Maharashtra.
There never was a greater genius born since the days of the
author of Dnyaneshwari in the land of the Mahrattas. Like
a cloud, Savarkar is myriad-sided. He is a volcanic writer,
a heroic author, a renaissance scholar, a historian in action, a
dramatist, a novelist and an epic poet whose genius earns
him a place among the first few greatest geniuses of our
Motherland. His creative genius is versatile and has the force
and flow of the Ganges and the effluence of a volcano. There
is grandeur of the Gaurishank2u-, the sweep of an eagle, pro-
fundity of the ocean and the flash of lightning in all his
writings. The pen and tongue of no other Indian author and
orator have been so entirely devoted to the nation’s cause as
those of Savarkar. His literature fills the reader with hope
and courage. It inspires the patriot, stimulates the thinker
and drives the soldier to fight for justice, liberty and welfare
of humanity. What is more, his is the only pen that has
suckled a line of martyrs, an unparalleled phenomenon in
Indian literature ! To Savarkar nothing is better, higher and
holier than this noble human work of uplifting his fellowmen
in this holy Hindusthan.

Sri G. T. Madkholkar, an ex-President of the Marathi
Literary Conference, well-known critic and at present editor
of the Tarun Bharat, Nagpur, in one of his memorable articles
remarks that during the last seventy-five years, Maharashtra
produced eight writers worth the name who possessed great
imaginative power, viz. Chiplunkar, Paranjpe, Shripad
Krishna, Achyutrao Kolhatkar, Kelkar, Gadkari, Atre and
Khandekar. Of these, he says, Chiplunkar and Paranjpe are
the only two writers whose imagination is of the classic type.
Savarkar, he says, belongs to this classic type. The critic goes
on ; “ The imagination of Savarkar is not as playful and
charming as the butterfly ; it has the sublime sweep of an
eagle. It has not the playfulness of a spring ; it has the depth
of the sea. It has not the delicacy of a creeping flowering-
plant ; it has the blazing power of lightning.” One more
quality and by no means a less important quaUty of Savarkar’s
imagination has escaped the notice of this eminent critic. It

RATIONALIST AND AUTHOR 187

is that Savarkar’s imagination is not devoid of realism.
Savarkar’s imaginative power is not aimless and unbridled.
It soars to the height of the Everest, but is not lost in the
clouds ! It has wings powerful enough to come down to the
earth. In this Savarkar outshines his two rivals, Chiplunkar
and Paranjpe.

In the domain of propaganda by literature no Indian writer
excels Savarkar. Pointing 'it that the literary productions
of Savaikar are dominatea . >• vigour, sublimity and idealism,
Sii Madkholkar writes ; . a -arkar’s idealism in both these

respect.s — complete indepeudr ice of India and the resurrec-
tion of the Hindus — is to be called uncommon for the simple
reason that none else has so fearlessly advocated the cause of
independence and nobody has so comprehensively preached
for the resurrection of the Hindu race. It seems that his
fighting temperament is not prepared to take note of the limi-
tations, possibilities, or proprieties. The result is that w’hat-
ever ideal he advocates assumes so intensely propagandistic
and challenging a form that his writings are surcharged with
the spirit of a battle-cry.” In this, Sri N. C. Kelkar agrees
with Sri Madkholkar. Describing Savarkar as a man of art,
Kelkar says : “ Delicacy, so inherent in art, is not apparent
in Savarkar. Like the American author, Upton Sinclair, or
Norris, Savarkar possesses all the force of a propagandist and
is a straight hitter. He could hardly be excelled as a propa-
gandist by anyone else in Maharashtra ! Whatever subject
he chooses, may it be the purification of the Marathi language,
or the purification of the converts, the reform of the script,
or the reformation of the society, he will come out like one
pouncing for a battle-field with sword in hand.” Kelkar
proceeds : “ A Spartan general advised his soldier, ‘ if your
sword is shorter than that of your rival, always march a step
in advance.’ But Savarkar’s sword is longer in the first
instance and he himself stands a step in advance of others.”
Kelkar concludes : “ All the writings of Savarkar are like
leaps through arches fixed with knives and blazing torches
turned inside.”

Presiding over a literary function in Bombay in 1943, a
renowned novelist of Maharashtra remarked that Savarkar’s
pen had the force of the combined pens of the trio : Agarkar,

188 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Chiplunkar and Tilak. And indeed it is so ! Chiplunkar.
Agarkar and Tilak, all were spirited writers. All were virile.
They all had a ready pen. But while Agarkar wrote with his
dry intellect like a giant. Chiplunkar wrote like a proud
Pope, and Tilak wrote like a leader-general. Savarkar, how-
ever, wrote like a learned rationalist and a warrior-prophet !
Savarkar is master both of thought and word. His writings
ripple with human emotions and masculine force. He over-
whelms you with a well-drilled army of arguments. He
thrusts the kripan of reason through the shield of falsehood,
treachery, superstition and hypocrisy. But the most un-
rivalled characteristic of Savarkar’s excellence is that he
carries his great learning easily and writes with genius and
judgment. His perspicuity is peculiar ; his insight rare ! No
other pen has caused such a social upheaval with the violence
of spring-tides as did the volcanic pen of this man. He has
lashed his social opponents with a hard rod of rationalism
and crushed their opposition. His rationabstic articles on
‘ The Machine,’ ‘ God or Gunpowder,’ ‘ God of Man and Lord
of the Universe,’ ‘Woman’s place in Manusmriti,' ‘Woman’s
Beauty and Duty ’ and his biting pungent articles on ‘ the
Cow ’ will easily rank him amongst the greate.st social
reformers of the world.

During his internment at Ratnagiri besides the several
articles mentioned above, he wrote his famous book ‘ Hindu
Pad-Padashahi ’ which is a history of the Rise and Fall of the
Mahratta Empire. Read in conjunction with Ranade’s Rise
of the Maratha Power, this book gives you the full nationa-
listic and broad view of the great national movement of the
Mahratta Hindus. It was a righteous war for the liberation
of the Hindus against the theocratic patriotism, fanatic fury,
volcanic greed and foreign domination of the Muslims. In this
book Savarkar depicts in his authoritative tone the glorious
spectacle of the rising Mahrattas, their insatiable central
desire, and their inordinate love for re-establishing for the
Hindus Swadharma and Swaraj, the God-given rights of Man.
The book reveals Savarkar’s master-intellect, true insight,
stately diction, great thought, and honest pride.

Here is an interesting parallel ! Both Savarkar and Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru wrote history. Both are great personalities.

RATIONALIST ANO AUTHOR 189

Nehru wrote for fame and glory. Savarkar wrote for the
nation. Both wrote thar histories with vigour, vivacity and
told their sl'iries nobly and splendidly. While Nehru is a man
of immense reading Savarkar is a man of profound knowledge.
Savarkar wrote with astounding originality and much philo-
sophy while Nehru wrote with little originality and no philo-
sophy. Nehru lavishes praise on his heroes and lashes at
others. Savarkar inspires the nation and hammers out false
gods. But Nehru and Savarkar, the historians, differ on the
vital issues of the Indian History. In his Glimpses of World
History Nehru gets a perv erted vision of Shivaji’s action in
kiUing Afzulkhan. Neliru’.s angle of vision could misrepresent
the most vital crisis in the life of the greatest Indian of his
age. That angle of vision expressed surprise in his Discovery
of hidia that Jayachand is looked upon almost as a traitor, that
Hinduism was a national religion, and that Pratap regarded
Akbar, the hero of Pandit Nehru, as an alien. To Savarkar,
the historian, Jayachand is synonjrmous with a traitor, Akbar
a symbol of foreign domination and Pratap a nation-builder.
Have you heard Savarkar, the historian, on Chitor, Panipat,
and 1857 ? Have you come across any History of England
that does not contain the words Trafalgar and Waterloo ?
Have you come across any History of India without the men-
tion of Chitor ? Behold, it is Nehru’s Discovery of India.

Another great book Savarkar wrote during his internment
is My Transportation for Life. It is the most convincing and
inspiring work which depicts his jail life in the Andamans.
If five books that will last as long as the Marathi language
lasts, are selected, this stately and inspiring book will be one
of them along with Dnyanadeva’s Dnyaneshwari, Tukaram’s
Gatha, Tilak’s Gita Rahasya and Apte’s novel But who pays
Heed ? Leading critics in Mahai'ashtra are of opinion that
this book of Savarkar would occupy a prominent place among
the great classics of the world. Again a great parallel. Pandit
Nehru wrote a great autobiography. In his mundane way,
Nehru’s autobiography is vigorous and glorious, but greatly
pompous and partly spiteful.

Savarkar’s My Transportation for Life, a part of his incom-
plete autobiography, is splendid, inspiring, ingenuous and
stately. Nehru is bristling with views and vanity, while

190 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Savarkar is bleeding with a serene thought and majestic heart.
If the full epic autobiography of Savarkar and the great roman-
tic life story of M. N. Roy had appeared in the field by now,
India would have shone in the domain of world auto-
biographies with two immortal autobiographies. This
Savarkar ’s book was translated into Gujarati and somehow
was proscribed by the alien Government egged on by native
machinations. And though on the advent of the Congress
Ministry the inspiring book escaped the literary genius of
Sri K. M. Munshi, the then Home Minister of Bombay, it wa.s
released by Sri Morarji Desai in a straightforward, patriotic
and fearless manner when he became the Home Minister of
Bombay.

As a dramatist, Savarkar did not care so much for a plot
or stage effect. Here the playwright lives the life of his
‘ self speaking and acting through his characters. His
characters move with emotion and reason. Humour is some-
times uncommon to genius, and Savarkar is no exception to
it. Still all the three plays of Savarkar written during his
internment are wonderfully effective. The Usshap paves the
way and struggles for the well-being and welfare of the
Depressed Classes and strives to bury untouchability.
Written on the background of Lord Buddha’s life, Sanyasta
Khadga — the Forsaken Sword — is a devastating commentary
on the doctrine of absolute non-violence, and preaches that
relative non-violence is a virtue. This play removes the web of
absolute non-violence, and ends in showing that not the saint,
but the sword protects the hearths and homes of a nation
against the aggre.ssive forces in the world. Some of the
characters from this drama non-violently enough do not ‘ cut ’
jokes, because the word ‘ cut ’ implies violence ! Dr. N. B.
Khare as a staunch Congressman saw this play staged in
Nagpur in the early thirties. As the play advanced and the
guns of philosophy of the struggle for existence began to
boom, Dr. Khare grew animated and to the amazement of
the audience sprang upon the stage with dramatic suddenness
and shouted ; “ Friends, countrymen, our country at present
needs some one to preach this philosophy.” This drama ends
in a tragedy. Clear was the object ! A slave country must
accustom itself to the spirit of tragedy. Uttarakriya, the

RATIONALIST AND AUTHOR 191

third play of Savarkar, deals with the post-Panipat period of
the Mahratta history.

Savarkar wrote two novels, the Moplah Rebellion and the
Transportation. The first is short, succinct and sweet with a
subtle charm and satire. Originally published in Babarao
Savarkar’s name — ^for Savarkar was then passing his days in
internment — , the novel was acclaimed to be the best from the
viewpoint of the ideal theme for a novel, by a front rank
Marathi columnist, although he expressed his belief that the
novel was written by Babarao Savarkar, which was not a
fact. As the colummist w as a critic of Savarkar and often
ungenerous, his opinion about the novel should be doubly
acceptable. The second novel has a thrilling background of
the magic of the Andamans, and according to some film
journals, it would be a great and thrilling screen version, if
reproduced.

IV

As for the role of women in life, Savarkar has definite views
to offer. He believes that there is a fundamental and natural
difference between man and woman. Their duties are
different. So their education, too, must necessarily differ.
Reformer as he is, he does not like women to obey the dictates
of old useless customs.

Savarkar regards female education indispensable to the
uplift of a nation ; but by female education he does not
necessarily mean university degrees, although he has no
objection to their obtaining the degrees without disregarding
their primary duty to the home, children, and the nation. He
holds that a system of education must be drawn up on new
lines, and women should be given some sort of specialized
training congenial to the temperament of women. A woman
should be a ministering angel rather than a masculine Amazon
or a Virago. She should imbibe the quality of her proverbial
modesty and grace rather than mere eloquence or proficiency
in mathematics. Women are the solace and comfort of heartlis
and homes. The larger the number of good healthy mothers,
he observes, the stronger and healthier will be the nation.
Therefore, a woman’s education should enable her to enrich

192 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

the nation with a generation stronger, more beautiful, and
more patriotic than the past. The Russian woman is on an
equal footing with man. Yet, does it mean, he asks, that
Stalin delivers a child instead of his wife ?

To Savarkar life is an oblation. According to him a woman
should look beautiful with her natural charms and try to keep
it with good aids to beauty. In addition, he has something
to say to a beauty about her duty ! Beauty is handed over
to her, he warns, as a strict sacred trust. And that trust is
eugenics. A beautiful woman who fails to fulfil this conditi(;n
becomes morally guilty of a breach of trust. A nation that
strives to have daughters more beautiful than their mothers
and sons stronger than their fathers necessarily adds to artistic
culture handed down to it through heritage ! Is this not the
angle and approach of a realist, a rationalist, and a reformer ?
Years after Savarkar wrote this, we find today England,
France and other European countries propagating these very
doctrines to arrest the decrease in population in their countries
and to avoid the consequential downfall and decay of the
virility of their nations.

CHAPTER XI

Back to Freedom

In spite of his heroic work in the direction of social and
mental revolution thi^oughout the period of internment at
Ratnagiri, Savarkar was trying his utmost to break his
shackles. Gnveriimeni wt c trying their way to prolong the
period of his internment oi some plea or other. It is said that
climate influences characteis Inhabitants as they were of a
region where fire is a luxury, the Britishers took great care
of fire wherever it burnt in their Indian Empire. They
watched the fire-places in India with special care. Whenever
any fire broke out in any part of India, Savarkar 's
residence was shadowed. Surprise * raids were a common
feature for Savarkar’s residence. Once the Superintendent
of Police surrounded Savarkar’s residence at dawn, and
showed Savarkar the order under which he was directed to
search Savarkar’s residence for copies of the proscribed book,
The Indian War of Independence of 1857. Savarkar came out
of the house with his family and said to the officer with a
smile : “ Yes, we have come out. You can go in and search the
house. But remember that I have struggled with Scotland
Yard for four years and outwitted them.” Yet the police had
not come to Savarkar’s residence without reason. Sardar
Bhagat Singh had printed two thousand copies of that famous
book of Savarkar to raise funds for his revolutionary society
and had respectfully sent the first two copies of the book to
Savarkar.

On another occasion Savarkar was almost perplexed. The
C.I.D. and police officers surprised him. But gifted with a
marvellous presence of mind, he waited till the search was
over and at last when the time for the report came, he handed
over to the officer the very writing pad which contained an
article ready for the press. The police officer used it without
peeping inside while Savarkar held a crumbled piece of paper
containing a poem on Sardar Bhagat Singh.

13

194 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

To supplement his heroic efforts and express his views
unobserved on current politics, Savarkar then patronised a
weekly named Shraddhananda edited by his brother, Dr, N,
D. Savarkar, in Bombay. It published several inspiring
articles by Savarkar. Though the articles did not appear in
the name of Savarkar, Maharashtra could feel the inspiring
touch and tone ; and in a short time this weekly attained
enormous popularity and had a wide circulation. Gandhiji
had just then begun to come out of his virtual retirement.
The Madras Session of the Indian National Congress passed
a resolution demanding absolute political independence.
Gandhiji dubbed it childish. Savarkar showed his great
jubilation thi-ough the weekly, and bitterly criticised the
attitude of Gandhiji towards that resolution.

Condolence meetings in memory of Swami Shraddhananda,
who was cruelly inurdered by a fanatic Muslim, in memory
of Deshbandhu Das and Lala Lajpat Rai, were addressed by
Savarkar before sighing multitudes at Ratnagiri.

At this juncture there was a move to elect Savarkar as
President of the Hindu Mahasabha at its Jubbulpore Session
in 1927, but it was not successful. Referring to this proposal,
Sri N. C. Kelkar who presided over the Session, began his
Presidential Address with these words : The Reception

Committee, I learn, had adverted to the possibility of getting
Mr. Vinayakrao Savarkeir to preside over this Conference,
and I share their regret and disappointment in the failure of
their object.” ^ During these days a prominent Congressman
of Maharashtra suggested Savarkar's name for the president-
ship of the Indian National Congress and wrote that in the
event of Savarkar’s absence, his Address should be read out
by installing a portrait of Savarkar in the presidential chair.
Not only this, it was even suggested that Savarkar should
represent the Congress at the Round Table Conference.^

The Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha was the first organized Hindu
Body which came forward to back up Dr. Moonje in his
acceptance of the invitation to the Round Table Conference
and in January 1931 passed a resolution “ expressing apprecia-
tion of the ability and courage with which Moonje and Jayakai*

* N. C. Kelkar, Speeches and Writings, p. 301,

2 Quoted in the Pratihha, dated 15-1-1936.

BACKTOFREEOOM 195

had defended the Hindu cause, which it was declared, was
identical with the cause of India as a whole against the
anti-national encroachments of the Moslems.” The resolution
further threw a challenge to the Moslems to accept an
arbitration by the League of Nations. It added that the
rejection of the arbitration offer by the Muslims exposed the
unjust nature of their claims.

In 1934 Savarkar was arrested again and detained for two
weeks in connection v/ith -bots fired at some military officer
in Bombay by Sri Wau.anrao Chavan, a Sanghatanist
firebrand from Ratnagir . Jovcrmnent, however, could
establish nothing and Savarkar was released on the 15th day.

Government went on extending the period of Savarkar’s
internment from time to time — 1929 to 1937 — as they
considered him a danger to the peace of India. In the last
week of October 1930, the Bombay Government instructed
Mr. D. Simington, District Magistrate of Ratnagiri, to give
his opinion as to whether, having regard to Savarkar’s
antecedents and to the then political situation, he considered
that the restrictions imposed on Savarkar should be either
wholly or partly withdrawn without danger.

The District Magistrate, Mr. D. Simington, is reported to
have opined that in the then state of politics Savarkar should
not be released. He ako reported to Government that
Savarkar had devoted himself to the removal of untouchabilitj'
and had achieved a certain measure of success, and added
that he had successfully admitted the untouchables to the
new Patit Pavan Temple. It was a bad recommendation, but
a gentleman’s appreciation of Savarkar’s social work. Are
there any impartial souk now in power who are frank enough
to admit what the Englkhman wrote secretly ? In 1934
Mr. R. M. Maxwell, Secretary to the Government of Bombay,
declined Savarkar’s request for permission to go to Bombay
to attend the Bombay City and Suburbs Hindu Sabha
Conference which was held in Bombay on the 23rd and 24th
of January 1934. But whenever he was allowed to go out
of Ratnagiri City or Dktrict, secret wires clicked in code
words from Ratnagiri to all important police headquarters of
Bombay, Poona, and other cities. And every Dktrict
Magistrate in the province tried his utmost to avoid Savarkar’s

196 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

presence in his District by complaining to the Home
Department that his presence in the District would
tremendously increase the work of the police and other
departments. * *

Years rolled on and at long last the day of release arrived.
After fighting the Provincial elections under the new Act of
1935 and almost unchallenged by any major political opposition
for the Hindu seats, the Congressmen were hatching the eggs
of ministership under the wings of Gandhiji ! Govei’nment
were eager to have interim ministries in the provinces with a
view to pressing the Congress to accept office. In the interim
period of the deadlock Khan Bahadur Dhanjishaw Cooper,
with the support of Sri Jamnadas M. Mehta, a representative
of the Tilakite Democratic Swaraj Party, e.vpressed his
willingness to form an interim Ministry in the Province on
one condition. Mehta had been a champion of the campaign
for Savarkar’s release for a number of years in the past. He
made Savarkar's release a condition precedent to accepting
the office. H.E. Lord Brabourne, the then Governor of
Bombay, showed his willingness to release Savarkar subject
to good behaviour. Mehta’s repartee at once resolved the
bracket of the condition ! Mehta said that the Governor
himself and even the speaker himself were free citizens subject
to good behaviour, in fact any citizen in any country was so.
Then the Governor’s telephone murmured between London
and Bombay, between Bombay and Simla and to the great
relief of Hindusthan, Savarkar was at very long last released
unconditionally on the 10th of May 1937, the 10th of May, the
red letter day in the Indian history on which the first War
of Independence started.

To have released one of the greatest political prisoners of
the world, to have set free the greatest revolutionary leader of
India and the noblest son of Mother India was no common
achieventent for Sri Jamnadas.

Several functions were held in Ratnagiri in honour of
Savarkar’s release. At one of these functions Sri M. D. Joshi,
a prominent Congressman expressed his view that Savarkar
was also one of the doctors of the nation and would prescribe
for the ills of the nation. Whatever party Savarkar might
join, he would add to the freedom movement and welfare of

BACKTO FREEDOM 197

the country, added the speaker. A purse was presented to
Savarkar by the citizens of Ratnagiri. In hi.'- parting speech
Savarkar was moved with the memory of the social movements
in Ratnagiri. He said he was very sorry that due to his
mission there were divisions, heart-breakings and scuffles
among families and friends. Savarkar continued that he had
done it all in the best interest of the Country, God and Man.

As for the future, Savarkar said that the goal of
independence w^as to be attained by resistance, alliance and
pressure; that the ba.sic <';il]ine of that independence should
be a ‘ one man one vote ’ d -*mocracy and that he would strive
for and achieve that goal not by sacrificing the just rights of
the Hindus. Whatever happened, he said, he would never
desert the cause of the Hindus. He would die as a Hindu
rather than prosper as an anti-Hindu soul, concluded Savarkar.
After his release Savarkar unfurled the tri-colour flag
reminiscent of the Abhinava Bharat emblem at the Ratnagiri
District Political Conference held under the presidentship of
Mr. K. F. Nariman. Political life and fight to begin after a
lapse and lull of full twenty-seven years !

But the India of those days was dominated by Gandhiji who
had literally thrown away into the waste paper ba.sket the
appeal for Savarkar’s release. When approached for his support
and signature to the appeal, Gandhiji said he did not know
who that Savarkar was, and asked whether he was the same
Savarkar who wrote The Indian War of Indepi 7idence of 1857,
and subsequently explained to the public that he thought it
derogatory to approach the British Government for the release
of Savarkar. Nehru went one step further. He was reported
to have torn non- violently the ‘ Release Savarkar ’
memorandum to pieces. And all this happened before
Savarkar had joined the Hindu Mahasabha as a political party
in opposition to the Congress. Coming events cast their
shadows before ! Let history record this fact which is
stranger than fiction !

CHAPTER XII

Whirlwind Propaganda

I

Savarkar’s dramatic release was a pleasant surprise to
Hindudom. Leaders like Sri Kelkar, Bhai Parmananda,
Dr. Moonje and Sri Aney were happy over the exhilarating
event that brought to them the release of a national force. The
reaction of the Congress High Command to his release was
notable. Pandit Nehru welcomed Savaikar back to freedom.
Rajaji felt great joy at the release of a national hero, who was
to him a symbol of courage, bravery and patriotism. Desha-
gaurav Subhas Bose welcomed him, and urged him to join
the Congress and strengthen the national movement. He
added that bright future awaited Savarkar. Sri M. N. Roy
welcomed the hero and hoped that Savarkar would devote
his life again to the emancipation of India on his own line of
thinking.^ Gandhiji had nothing to say about it. He was
proverbially silent.

The appearance of Savarkar on the political horizon natu-
rally aroused the envy of the petty patriots to w'hom
Gandhism was a faith and profession. Naturally the non-
violent non-embarrassing politics .suffered a volcanic wave.
The shrewd leaders in the Congress camp, who knew Savar-
kar s mettle, were sure that their steel was not strong enough
to break his spirit. They, therefore, sophistically hoped that
Savarkar would join the Congress or rest on his laurels.
Some nervously whispered that the steam-roller was out.
They knew well that he wore both a cross and a crown. The
crown had been smelted, shaped, tried and glorified in the
process of untold sufferings and incomparable sacrifice. But
what all of them feared most was his conquering personality,
matchless oratory, and, above all, his militant political
ideology.

’ Me.ssa{;e.s of Nehru, Bo.se, Foy and Rajaji to the Lokamanya,
Bombay, dated 27-6-1937.

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 199

Maker of history, father of a political ideology, leader of a
world-famous revolutionary party, Savarkar was not a man
to follow success by changing his principles and betraying
the souls of his re^^o]utionary comrades. Lonely he set out
on his mission. He bade farewell to Ratnagiri to see how the
land lay, where the fuel existed, where the spark of righteous
resistance smouldered in Maharashtra. He reverentially
bowed to the Gadi of Shivaji at Kolhapur, and proclaimed liis
entrance into the political arena. At Pandharpur, the
southern Ber.ares, he pal., jis respects to the g^reat saints of
Maharashtra. It was at ra j that he first fluttered hi.s claw
and attacked the imbecile aiiitude of the Congressmen in the
Central Assembly where they had sometime before shame-
lessly argued that the kidnapping of Hindu girls in the North-
West Frontier Province was but a problem of physical wants !
This stroke was a direct challenge, a portent, a straight hit,
and a penetrating arrow aimed at the power and prestige of
the Congress. Congressmen surreptitiou.sly twisted the state-
ment, tried to make an issue out of it, invented a pretext, and
boycotted the reception functions held in Savarkar ’s honour !

Savarkeir reached Poona, the political, historical, and cul-
tural capital of Maharashtra. The whole city was stirred.
There was a new hope, a new life. With Sav’^arkar came up
the liisioric flag. The resurrected flag was hoisted for the
first time in recent years ! The spell of the name Savarkar
was cis mighty as it was mesmeric. Political workers, who
were humbled down and routed by the Congress, began to
look up straight. In Bombay Savarkar was given a waian
reception at a meeting which was addressed by Mr. K. F.
Nariman, Sri M. N. Roy and Sri S. K. Patil, all paying glowing
tributes to Savarkar’s .sufferings and sacrifice. M. N. Roy
touchingly referred to Savarkar as the tree of which he was
a branch among others, and with glowing eyes added that the
inspiration he had drawn from Savarkar during his student
days could stand him in good stead, and enabled him to face
forces of injustice, exploitation and slavery in all parts of the
world !

Savarkar took his permanent abode in Bombay. But time
and again he visited Poona and other parts of Maharashtra
during the latter part of 1937. Those who knew his political

200 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

ideology were not surprised to hear that Savarkar joined the
Tilakite Democratic Swaraj Party and shortly aftc^rwards the
Hindu Mahasabha. He did not join the Congress that had
departed from its democratic and national stand, and begun
to surrender to the anti-national demands of the Muslims.
Organizing a separate political party, however, was an uphill
task. Gandhiji was fortunate in having at liis disposal the
Congress, which was already shaped into an active political
organisation by Tilak, Lajpat Rai, and Das. Here Savarkar
began almost with a clean slate.

But why this new path ? Savarkar declared that the right
of revolt belonged to anybody provided he was prepared to
face the consequential ordeal. When Jesus Christ died, he had
a few followers ; Mohammed had to flee sometimes for want
of support ; and Columbus discovered America despite oppo-
sition and ridicule offered by his crew and comrades. There
was no harm, Savarkar said, if the country had many parties.
Savarkar further said that the Moderates also were great
patriots ; but Tilak opposed them and brought about unrest
that led to a political awakening. The revolutionaries left
Tilak behind, Savarkar continued, and showed the world to
what degree the barometer of active resistance and national
wrath could be rfiised by struggling India ! The object of
our worship is the Goddess of Freedom. The temple is one.
Let the ways and means differ. The worshippers should not
quarrel among themselves over the correctness of the means.”
Differences always exist and their clashes make for light !
He then reminded the people that Tilak became Lokamanya
after his death. Tilak did not agree entirely wnth him ; but
Tilak did not commit the sin of coming in his way, Savarkar
declared. He pointed out that Tilak, Gokhale, and Surendra-
nath Banerjee never considered politicians of independent
tliinking their enemies, because those politicians did not
subscribe to their own political views. He expressed also the
fear that the Congress would one day throttle the Bande
Mataram, and the national song would meet the fate the
poetry of Bhushan sulfered, in the University curriculum.
And within a few years the Congress did throttle Bande
Mataram on the altar of their pseudo-nationalism for appeasing

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA

201

the Muslim mind. “ Efforts of all and various forces/’ Savar-
kar assertei’, “have led to the dawn of freedom. It is a
victory achieved by the cumulative efforts and combination
of all forces. Still Delhi is far off.”

As regards his political mission, he declared that his aim
was to establish a free independent Indian State on the bed-
rock of the Hindus, tlie nalional majority. He added that he
wanted to make the paper majority of the Hindus actively
conscious of the fact that they were the bedrock and main-
spring of the national life and the State. In I'rief but in un-
mistakable terms, he defined his mission to be :

(1) Absolute political independence of Hindusthan as the
goal.

(2) Its achievement by any means.

(3) Regeneration of the Hindus.

Savarkar then explained why he laid stress on the consoli-
dation of the Hindus, though he asked them to remove the
rigidity of the cast-iron rituals, and to break all the barriers
of caste system. The concept of Hindutva, he said, was
broader than Hinduism which related to the religious system
of the Hindus, their theology and dogma. But Hindutva was
far more comprehensive and referred not only to the religious
aspect of the Hindu people as the word Hinduism did, but
comprehended their cultural, social, political, and linguistic
aspects as well. He declared: “ Let Hinduism concern itself
with the salvation of life after death, the concept of God, and
the Universe. Let individuals be free to form opinions about
the trio. The whole Universe from one end to the other is the
real book of religion. But so far as the materialistic and
secular aspect is concerned, the Hindus are a nation bound
by a common culture, a common history, a common language,
a common country, and a common religion.”

The first appeal Savarkar made to the youth was to start
rifle classes, to learn to handle at least the air-guns. “ There
is a scope for drama, poetry and literature in life : but when
the mother is on her death-bed, it is a sin to go out for a
change of climate, or to enjoy life and stars,” he said. In the
last week of October 1937, Savarkar hoisted at Poona the tri-
colour flag of the Revolutionary India, which was designed
by the Abhinava Bharat and first unfurled by Madame Cama

202 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

in Germany. This was the first flag that was flown as the
national flag of India since 1857, and fortunately it was
brought to India after years through the efforts of Sri
Gajananrao Kelkar. In the following montli Savarkar presided
at the C.P. and Berar Hindu Conference in Akola. There he
defined tlie principles of his nationalism. Since independence
had come in sight, he thought,, it was the proper time to define
it. He told the conference that every country was known
after and ruled in the name of its national majority. “ The
Hindus, the national majority of Hindusthan,” he declared,
“had sacrificed almost exclusively for the liberation of
Hindusthan. In that very Bengal which is now virtually
ruled by the Muslims the sacrificial fire was kept burning by
Hindus alone. The buried bones in the Andamans can also
proudly proclaim that the heroes of independence were the
Hindus. Whatever has been achieved is done through the
sweat, struggle and sacrifice of the Hindus. Those laws and
rules under which the weal, welfare, culture and honour of
the Hindus would flouri.sh would alone constitute Swaraj
for the Hindus ! ” He reiterated his unflinching resolve that
if. was better to die in the thick of the fight for such a righteous
cause than to live with passive interest and see its failure.

Savarkar s visit to Nagpur had its peculiar charm and
enthusiasm. A vast crowd received him at the Nagpur station.
Amidst an atmosphere full of a new hope and charm,
Dr. Moonje, flie champion of the Hindu cause, in a moving
tone said that whatever service and power he had at his
disposal, he laid from that moment at the disposal of Savarkar.
On December 13, 1937, at Nagpur Savarkar warned the Hindus
to be prepared to flout the Pakistan scheme. In the same
speech, referring to the then political trend and happenings
in Kaslunir, he foretold that the existence of Kashmir Hindus
would soon be in utter danger, if the anti-Hindu forces were
not checked at that very stage. How prophetic he was can
be judged from the current history of Kashmir !

He, therefore, openly denounced Gandhiji’s ill-advice to the
Maharaja of Kashmir to abdicate in favour of the Muslims
and to go to Benai-es to do penance, because the Muslims were
in a majority in Kashmir. He attacked the unfair attitude of
Gandhi ji who would not advise in the same way the Nizam

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 203

of Hyderabad and Nawab of Bhopal to iibdicale in favour of
the majorities in those Stales, who happened to be Hindus,
and ask the Muslim rulers to go to Mecca to do Toba \ The
rapid advance of Savarkar’s fiery and clear-cut ideal of
unalloyed nationalism began to create a nucleus of followers,
leaders, and supporters all over India. It was in the fitness of
things that such an inspired personality was elected
unanimously to the presidents})ip of the Hindu Mahasabha, in
spite of the opposition of some Congressmen for its nineteenth
Annual Session which was held at Abinedabad on the 30th
of December 1937. This the highest honour that the
Hindus could confer upon him. Savarkar made the greatest
sacrifice of his life in joining the Hindu Mahasabha and staked
his name and his all for the cause of the Hindus. Pelf, power,
and popularity were on the opposite side in the Congress.
There was no position to which he could not have risen once
he had joined the Congress. But he preferred duty to
popularity, weal of the nation to personal wealth, and personal
cross to popular crown. Prataps never pander to popularity
or bend their necks to dishonourable eminence. It is given
to Mansinghs to thrive on it. The Hindu Mahasabha now
began to rise as a political organization. Savarkar infused life
into it and gave it a Platform, a Slogan, a Bible, and a Banner !

And such a warrior philosopher appeared on the political
field and platform of Indian politics, when the dawn of rosy
revolution had faded away, the morning of the unalloyed
nationalism of Dadabhai Naoroji and Tilak had disappeared,
and the evenings were filled with weird shadows of pseudo-
nationalism ! To defend the legitimate, civic, religious,
cultural and economic rights of the Hindus in their Homeland
was taboo in 1937 ! Builders of our nation like Shiv^aji,
Pratap, and Guru Govindsingh were stigmatized as treache-
rous or misguided ! Prophets like Daj^ananda, noble
patriots like Lala Lajpat Rai and Swami Shraddhananda were
decried as narrow-minded bigots. The Muslims were offered
by Hindu leaders blank cheques of suzerainty over the Hindus
on the one hand, and the Hindus were themselves offered
blank betrayals by their leaders on the other. The inhuman
atrocities of the Moplahs were painted with the colour of
patriotism and brotherhood. The slogan, no Swaraj without

204 SAVARKAK AND HIS TIMES

Hindu-Muslim Unity, was the breath of life of the pseudo-
nationalists, and this slogan was constantly and rightly held
by the foreign Government as a loaded gun against the
national demand for freedom.

The policy of non-co-operation and non-violence was the cry
of the day. Jail-seeking was regarded as the royal road to
independence, although, in fact, it was a royal road to
personal prestige and power. A soldier was accursed as a
sinner, and a spinner in the Congress camp was nursed as a
saviour ! The principle of one vote for three Hindus and
three votes for one Muslim in the form of the Communal
Awaj’d was accepted as justifiable, democratic and fully
national. Recognition to Muslim population had become a
righteous duty, but mere recording of the correct Hindu
population in the census was a communal act. The cause of the
Muslim religion had beconie a national call, and the Hindu
religion became a symbol of reactionarism. Hindu leaders
like Shrimati Sarojini Naidu appealing to the Muslims of the
world to unite were eulogized, and the Muslim leaders, who
publicly declared their intention to divide the Depressed
Classes between the Hindus and Muslims, were elevated to ihe
pedestal of Godheads. But Hindu leaders, who stood by
Hindu self-respect, were branded as communalists. In fact,
it was the Dark Age in Indian politics of the modern times, as
Dr. Ambedkar once put it.

At this dark period, the inspired personality of Savarkar
appeared on the Indian political horizon incomparable in
sacrifice, uncompromising in principles. The warrior, who had
lived in his veritable grave, grappling with death for a quarter
of a century, again came to the front. For the welfare of his
people, for carving out the independence of his nation, he had
eaten the coarsest food, worn the roughest clothes, slept on the
bare earth in the darkest room, and was harnessed to the
oil-mill.

The voice of such a dynamic, mesmeric personality was
bound to exercise an irresistible influence over the people.
Savarkar felt it was his righteous duty to remove ruthlessly
the web of Gandhism that had choked the political life of
Hindusthan. Great political leaders are born with fabulous
energy ! So was stubborn Tilak. So was tenacious Gandhiji.

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 205

So was indefatigable Nehru. So was dynamic Savarkar.
These were the four leaders that shook the remotest corner
of Hindusthan with the vibrations of their views and vigour !
Savarkar marched from Province to Province, propagating
his great ideal, explaining the territorial nationalism of the
Congress, and expounding his own stand based on political
rationalism and historical realism. He went on conquering
new planes and new patriots, pushing aside time-old
personalities and theories like cobwebs.

il

Throughout the length and breadth of Hindusthan,
Savarkar was hailed as the saviour of Hindusthan, pai’tly
with mixed feelings of love and reverence and partly with
awe and jealousy. A sea of humanity welcomed him in
February 1938, at Delhi, the historic capital of India. In that
memorable procession of thousands of people, Dr. Jayakar
and Loknayak Aney took keen interest with pride. Flowers
were showered, sweets were distributed, all public squares
of Delhi were decorated and flags were unfuided in honoui-
of the great hero, who made for the first time a triumphant
entry into the heart of the nation. The new ideology stirred
the United Provinces. This province w'as the chief scene of
the romantic history of 1857, and naturally Savarkar's
speeches were filled with the glorious reminiscences of that
heroic struggle for Independence. The Cawnpore Municipality
presented Savarkar with an address. Cities like Faizabad,
Barabanki, Lucknow and Agra gave him public receptions.
At Cawnpore he delivered, on April 3, 1938, an inspiring
speech on ‘ 1857 ’. He said : “ This very Cawnpore has
witnessed the defeat of the British forces at the hands of
Tatya Tope. Since my childhood I have been cherishing an
irresistible yearning for visiting this city as the venue of the
scenes of revolution and visiting Kashi as the holy city of
Hindusthan. Since my arrival hei-e I have been haunted by
the spirits of Nanasahib, Tatya Tope, the war cries raised by
their battalions and the thunder of their cannons." He saw the
famous massacre Ghat at Cawnpore and the temple of Shiv
whence Tatya Tope blew his bugle, and gave a clarion call to

206 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

his ai-my. The historian of ‘ 1857 ’ astounded the people by
exactly pointing out certain places imprinted with historical
events of 1857, though il was his first visit to the city.

At Faizabad he paid a visit lo the Sanskrit Pathashala and
Gurukul. While replying to the address given by the institu-
tion, Savarkar paid glowir.g tributes to the authorities and
teachers of the Pathashala for having given equal opportunities
to all Hindus irrespective of castes. Receiving an address on
behalf of the public al Barabanki. Savarkar reached Lucknow
on April 5. There he was taken in a grand procession, which
pas.sed through ihe '.lieeis decorated with arches. At a
jnanunuth public meotiug Saw'.rkar declared how the Congress
liad departed from its u ue nationaUstn and was sui rendering
to the anti-national demands of the Muslims. It was here thai
Acharya Narendradeu saw Savarkar and exchanged views
with him. Then addressing a meeting at Hasan Gaiij and
Shahad Ganj, he reached Agra where he was accorded a
rousing reception, and was presented with public addresses.
In the Agra f ort Savarkar showed how and where Shivaji
confronted the trembling Aurnngzcb.

In the middle of April Savarkar visited Sholapur and
during the first week of May 1958, attended the Hindu Youth
Conference at Poona, when processions demanding the lifting
of the ban on aaiiis were taken out.

Then the land of the Vedas and the Five Rivers gave a
.splendid reception to Savarkar, the warrior philosopher of the
Land of Kannayoya. In the second week of May 1938, Lahore
gave him a public reception. Amidst deafening applause he
garlanded the stiilue of Lala Lajpat Rai, the lion of the Punjab.
He also paid a visit to the liisloric Shahid Ganj of the Sikhs.
At Lahore, in a Press interview, Savarkar said that he and
Ml-. Jinnah were not birds of the same feather, because, while
he stood for equality and no concessions. Mi-. Jinnah did not
stand for equality and always asked for more and more
concessions. Savarkar told the press representatives that he
insisted that either there should be joint electorates without
any reservation of seats for any community in any legislature
or any local body, or there must be joint electorates with
reservation of seats for minorities either on population basis
or according to a system of weightages equally applicable to

WHIRLWIND P R O P A G A C D A 207

all minorities. He further said that the Congress should
assume the role of a Parliament in whi^ ii all parties should
participate, and not the role of a party ss it was developing
in those days.

While writing on the splended j ;ception accorded to
Savarkar by Lahore people, the Trihn>ui, a leading Nationalist
paper, appreciated the services that S ivarkar rendered to the
cause of the Motherland. Discussing the difference between
the viewpoints of Savarkar and Jinnah, the paper observed :

As a matter of fact Mr. Savarkar 's anchor as a sincere and
a rue nationalist holds as ever. The several speeches made
Ijy liim during the last three days, show unmistakably both
the general soundne.ss of hi.s political views and the fervour
and intensity of his love ol country and freedom. His
conception of a modern nation and an ideal state is that of a
nation and state in which no difference is made between one
person and artoiher on the score of community, religion or
caste. Holding this view, and this is undoubtedly the only-
correct view, it is only right that he should want the Congress
which is India’s supreme national organization, not to
recognize religion, class and community and to stand for the
equal rights of all citizens.” *

At Amritsar Savarkar was accorded an imposing reception
by the people. Several thousands of Sikhs received Savarkar
in the famous Golden Temple. When at a meeting the Sikhs
presented Savarkar with a Kripan, he asked them what earthly
use was served in presenting that Kripan to a Mahratta by
those people for whom the Kripan had lost its meaning and
spirit and whom the doctrine of non-violence was haunting !
Delivering a .speech at another public meeting, he said ; “ The
more you follow the Hindu-Muslim xmity, the further it runs
away from you. Plainly speaking, there does not exist any
minority problem worth the name. The Parsis, the Jews and
the Christians inhabiting this land never claimed special
rights and the latter have declared more than once that they
do not want separate electorates.” “

On his way back, he paid a visit to Ajmer. There addressing
a big meeting, Savarkar paid tributes to the services of

’ Quoted in The Mahratta, dated 20-5-1938.

Ibid.

208 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Gandhiji and other leaders of the Congress for creating a
spirit of awakening in the country, but asked the people to
oppose the Congress for its appeasing poUcy towards the
Muslims. Referring to this new awakening, the Sunday
Times, Lahore, paid a glowing tribute to Savarkar and said :
“ He is a man of sterling worth and possesses an indomitable
courage which made him boldly face the ordeals, through
which he passed/’ ’

After paying \dsil.s to Ajmer, Nasik, Gwalior and Jodhpur,
Savaikar turned to Sind. Long before, while in internment.
Savarkar had sounded a grave warning to the Sind Hindus
against the separation of Sind from the Bombay Province.
H(jwe\'er. the limb of the Bombay Province, like the lamb in
the Aesop’s Fable, was misled and was not only mutilated
from Bombay, but subsequently was cut off from the
Motherland.

The receptions accorded to Savarkar all over Sind from the
1st to the 10th of September 1938, w'ere imposing. In Karachi
the procession took five hours to wend its way to its destina-
tion. The enthusiasm of the Hindus w'as afire. Sukkar vied
with Karachi in offering its homage to the leader. The
Hyderabad Municipality held a reception of civic welcome to
the gi’eat son of India. Kothari and Sukkar Municipalities,
too, paid their homage to Savarkar. The Sind Hindu
Conference, which was then held at Sukkar under the lead
of Savarkar, sounded a timely warning to the Sind Hindus,
and asked them to boycott the Congress and organize a
stronghold of Hindus to save their hearths, homes and interests
in the near future. The Sind Hindus then under the evil
influence of the Congress forgot this warning, and ultimately
paid for their folly in 1947. Describing this tour of Savarkar,
the Sind Observer, an English Daily of Congress persuasion,
declared : “ He came, he saw, he conquered.”

In October 1938, the Hyderabad (Bhaganagar) struggle was
launched to vindicate the civic, religious, economic and
political rights of the Hindus in' the Hyderabad State, who
were groaning under the heels of the medieval tyranny of
the Nizam. The Hindus and Sikhs in the State were not
allowed to hold meetings, take out processions political or

' Quoted in The Mahratta, dated 20-5-1938.

President Sa’V'arkar taken out in a huge procession at Madura (1940)

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 209

^eligious, repair their temples, and to start even private
schools to educate the children in their mother tongue ; Hindu
temples, Hindu Bazaars and Hindu houses were burnt down ;
twelve per cent Muslim population held eighty per cent posts,
positions and jobs of va?itage in the administration. And
what was the attitude of the Congressmen to this movement
foi' civil liberties ? Their head, Gandhiji, eventually
declared that he did not want to embarrass His Exalted
Higlmess the Nizam of Hyderabad. Such was the policy of
the Congressmen and Gandhi}: that whenever the tyrants
were Muslims and the tyra iu,Gd were Hindus, their
nationalism, their love of justice, ^lieir love of civic rights and
political liberty would at once crawl. Therefore in deference
to the wish of their de facto leader, Gandhiji, the Congressmen
did not raise their little finger against this barbarous and
fanatical persecution. Their sympathy, their love of justice
and their tears they poured and shed with Tagore for
Abyssinia and the Arabs in Palestine.

Savarkar attended the historic Aryan Conference at
Sholapur in the last week of December 1938, at the pressing
request from the leaders of the Arya Samaj for his guidance
and lead in connection with the Hyderabad struggle, which
was gathering momentum, and as a result of which several
thousands of Hindu Civil Resisters were suffering imprison-
ment in the Nizam’s jails. In the same week came off the
Annual Session of the Hindu Mahasabha at Nagpur where
Buddhist representatives from Japan also were present. The
procession in honour of the President-elect took five hours
to reach its destination. Boundless enthusiasm prevailed.
Flowers were showered from an aeroplane upon President
Savarkar, the chosen leader. The Presidential Address of
Savarkar delivered at this Nagpur Session was a master-piece
of the principles of nationalism and humanism, rights and
duties of the minorities, of foreign policy and national and
international politics. During the Session the Hyderabad
Movement received the prime attention of all the
Sanghatanists.

Then followed Savarkar’s visit in the third week of
February 1939, to the land of Bande Mataram, the home of
Surendranath, C. R. Das, Bepin C. Pal, Arvind Ghose, and

14

210 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Khudiram Bose. The Khulna Conference opened a new
outlet for the salvation of the Bengal Hindus. Such was the
tremendous effect of Savarkar’s matchless oratory and
dynamic personality on Bengal that, pointing to the thundering
receptions to Savarkar and to his merciless logic, the Amrit
Bazar Patrika, an organ of Congress persuasion, sounded a
timely warning to the Congress bosses to be on their guard
and to dissuade themselves from placating the unholy demand.^
of the Muslim League. Savarkar captivated the hearts of
the leaders, lawyers, and public w'orkers of Bengal.
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjec was initiated into Indian
politics, and he became a new as.sct and nucleus of Hindu
Sanghatan ideology. Indeed, Mukherjee was a discovery of
Savarkar’s tour in Bengal. Almost all Bengal papers published
.special issues full of life-sketches of the romantic career of
the Prince of the revolutionaries of Hindusthan. One dailj'
described this tour as an all-talkie, all-movie tom* of the Indian
Robinhood.

After Bengal came the turn of Bihar, the land of the sturdy
fighters and tough warriors for the Hindu cause. A Provincial
Hindu Conference was held at Monghyr in the third week
of March 1939, imder the Presidentship of Savarkar. The
flag, the spirit and the ideology began to capture new fields
and new avenues. Monghyr gave an imposing reception to
Savarkar and the procession was the most splendid that the
city ever witnessed. The leading Hindi Daily, the Prahhakar,
of Monghyr, described it as an unparalleled reception ever
accorded to Great Men. Savarkar delivered his stirring
Presidential Address with great heartforce. He declared that
Hinduism and Hindutva were two different things. Hindutva
constituted, he said, all those aspects and aspirations which
the word nationalism comprised ! The Indian Nation, Patna,
commenting on the Presidential Address of Savarkar, wrote :

“ It was a stirring speech. He made an impassioned appeal
to Hindus to unite to resist inroads, and revive their past
glory. His speech was heard with rapt attention and
created an atmosphere of great enthusiasm among the Hindus.
He spoke with feeling, and the audience also was greatly
impressed with the arguments he gave in support of his
conclusions.” Then followed the Mahakoshal Provincial

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 211

Hindu Conference at Jubbulpore in the first week of June
1939. The idea of the unjust treatment to the national
majority of the Hindus and the danger of disintegration of
Hindusthan began to attract the attention of the Hindus. The
Jubbulpore Municipality held a civic welcome in honour of
Savarkar at the time of the Conference.

In the meantime ‘ Hyderabad Days ’ were observed all over
India by Hindu Sanghatanists ; centres of civil resistance
movement were opened w' dictators in charge at Poona,
Nagpur, and Akola. The I’ ndu Mahasabha gave Savarkar
full powers in respect of ifn movement. Savarkar toured
Berar in the middle of April and in June 1939, and gave a
tremendous impetus to the Hyderabad struggle. Touching
scenes in villages and towns on the border lines of C.P. and
Berar and Bombay provinces and on the banks of the
Penganga at Umarkhed in Berar were witnessed on those
occasions. One of the most touching incidents at one of these
mammoth meetings took place when the tribal leaders of the
forest dwellers — ^Pardhis — devotionally honoured Savarkar
with a rough woollen blanket and a lathi in their tribal
fashion.

Savarkar’s thrilling voice was then heard, giving a send-off
to several batches of volunteers who entered the Hyderabad
State to offer civil resistance. Nearly 15,000 volunteers,
workers and leaders were suffering imprisonment for having
offered the civil resistance. Senapati Bapat, Sri L. B.
Bhopatkar, Sri S. R. alms Mamai'ao Date, Dr. Paranjpe, Sri D.
K. Sathe, Sri Anantrao Gadre and Sri Bapurao Joshi from
Maharashtra, and Sri Chandakiran Sarada, Mahashay
Krishna, Pandit Narayan Swami, and Baba Madansingh Gaga
from other provinces led battalions of civil resisters into the
Hyderabad State and Yeshwantrao Joshi, the leader of the
Hindu Sabha in Hyderabad, with his colleagues had already
been arrested and sentenced by the State bureaucracy. Pandit
Nathuram Godse, who was the Secretary of the Pratikar
Mandal established at Poona under the Presidentship of Sri G.
V. Ketkar, Editor Mdhratta, had led the first batch of civil
resisters from Maharashtra into Hyderabad, the administra-
tively most dangerous State in India.

During this Movement there was complete co-operation

212

savarkar anh his times

between the Hindu Mahasabha and the Arya Samaj in spite
of the wily hindrances created by topmost Congress leaders,
callous misrepresentations made by the so-called nationalist-
^ujn-Congress press, unsympathetic attitude of the Provincial
Congress Ministries and the non -embarrassment policy of
Gandhiji. On April 5, 1939, Savarkivr successfully foiled in
a fighting speech the plans of Gandhiji at the Sholapur Aryan
Conference which was on the verge of withdrawing the civil
Resistance Movement in pursuance of Gandhiji’s draft
resolution ! Gandhiji was so sure of the withdrawal of the
Movement by the Arya Samaj that ho even saw Dr. Moonje
in Delhi, told him about the draft resolution, and asked
Moonje to wire to Savarkar to follow suit. Dr. Moonje told
Gandhiji that Gandhiji should not trouble himself about the
Movement started by the Hindu Mahasabha and added that
Savarkar knew best how and where to stop it.

As was their wont, the Congressmen were then busy
supporting the Muslim struggle against the Kashmir
State. Except the weak-need policy of their prototypes in
the Hyderabad State who stopped their struggle in the State
on instructions from the Congress High Command and
Gandhiji, they never seriously denounced the medieval
barbarism and misrule of Hyderabad State, which had
assaulted several Hindu civil resisters in its jails and put to
death about a dozen of them in the jails. Though the Congi-ess
journals and leaders kept themselves unconcerned with the
struggle against the Hyderabad State, the agitation reached
the British Parliament. In the British Parliament Col. Wedg-
wood raised the question of Hyderabad struggle carried on
by the Hindu Sanghatanists. and the same day Sri Bhide
Guruji hoisted the Geruva flag on the British Residency at
Hyderabad.

After a prolonged struggle H.E.H. the Nizam was brought
to his knees and in accordance with his traditional policy
bowed down to save his Gadi before he was completely .beaten.
On the 19th of July 1939, H.E.H. the Nizam declai-ed the
reforms wherein he gave recognition to the Civil Resistance
Movement, and offered to the Hindus at least 50 per cent of
the seats in the elected Legislatures wherein formerly the
Hindus had zero per cent representation. Savarkar who

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 213

smelt the coming sweep of World War II withdrew the
movement after this partial success. The Arya Samaj followed
suit. This successful termination of the struggle for the civic,
political, economic and religious rights of the Hindus and
Sikhs, who were totally suppressed in the Hyderabad State,
was a new feather in Savarkar’s cap and added prestige and
power to his leadership. Through the struggle Savarkar felt
the pulse of Maharashtra. The undying spirit of Shivaji and
Tilak was not yet dead the and Savarkar experienced that
spirit again revolting agains^ ranny and injustice.

Now all was not well with t\\e Congress and its lead. Owing
to the gi*owing popularity of the Hindu Mahasabha under the
lead of Savarkar, the Congress High Command resolved to
boycott the Hindu Mahasabha. This was an amazing stand
taken by the Congress lead. But no Mahasabhaite worth
the name worried himself about this boycott.

In the last week of September 1939, Savai^kar visited a few
places in Karnatak. He spoke in the Municipal Hall and
in the Karnatak college at Dharwar, and addressed meetings
at Hubli and some other villages like Hosur, Gurla Hosur,
Bail Hongul and gave a fillip to the Hindu Sanghatan work.
Savarkar ’s next visit outside Maharashtra was to Meei’ut in
the first week of October 1939, to support the candidature of
Maharaja Krishna in the provincial bye-election. There the
opposition from the Muslims and Congressmen to the Hindu
Mahasabha was smouldering. The Muslims even attacked
Savarkar’s procession at Meerut and there ensued a deadlock
in the street between the two sides. The U.P. police force
of Sri Govind Vallabh Pant as expected failed to protect the
just and legitimate rights of the peace-loving Hindu
processionists, and indirectly encouraged the aggressive
nature of the Muslims by forcing the Hindus themselves to
abandon the procession.

After Savarkar’s arrival in Bombay a statement was issued
to the press by seven leaders namely Sir Cowasji Jehangir,
Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, Sir V. N. Chandavarkar on behalf
of the Indian Liberals, Savarkar on behalf of Hindu
Mahasabha, Sri N. C. Kelkar and Sri Jamnadas Mehta on

214 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

behalf of the Democratic Swaraj Party, and Dr. Ambedkar
on behalf of the Independent Labour Party. These seven
leaders declared : “ The Congress and the Congress Govern-
ments believe in annihilating all parties and making the
Congress the only party in the land, as is the case in Fascist
and Nazi regimes — a result which would be a deathblow to
Democracy.” ^ This timely warning against the developing
Fascism had its effect. The Congress papers attacked
Savarkar particularly, saying that Savarkar could do nothing
but join the Liberals. Sounding a warning with the patriotic
men against the Congress Fascism was something unpatriotic,
but surrendering the national interests at Jinnah’s feet was to
the monopolised press a patriotic and national act !

Then came a great event in Savarkar's romantic life. The
British Power that had exiled him for 27 years thought it
fit to interview Savarkar at New Delhi on October 9, 1939,
to know his views and policy about World War II. In the
course of the interview Savarkar frankly told His Excellency,
the Governor-General Lord Linlithgow, that he still was a
revolutionary ; but as the political situation and strategy
demanded it, he was prepared to co-operate in the policy of
Militarisation and suggested to Government to keep the Sikh
and Gurkha battalions on the North-West Frontiers. He
feared, however, that an attack on India would probably be
made from the Eastern side. The Viceroy was so much
impressed with Savarkar’s lucid discourse on the current
problems that he expressed to some of liis Executive
Councillors that Savarkar was possibly the only politician who
could ably discuss the war situation from the Indian
viewpoint and its major issues in the context of international
politics. The Viceroy was also surprised to see that in spite
of an unusual record of long incarceration and great sufferings
Savarkar was still alert, and clear in thinking and unflagging
in energy ! In the evening Sir Jagdish Prasad and
Sir Ramswami Mudaliar, Members of the Executive Council
of the Viceroy, invited Savarkar to a tea-party.

1 P. R. Lele, War and India’s Freedom, p. 89.

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 215

After Savarkar’s interview with the Viceroy, the Hindu
Mahasabna Working Committee passed its famous resolution
declaring that neither the allies nor the axis powers entered
war with any altruistic motives ; but they were out for their
national or imperialistic ambitions.

The Calcutta Session of the Hindu Mahasabha held during
the last week of December 1939, proved to be a landmark in
the history of the Hindu Mahasabha and in the life of
Savarkar. So great was the enthusiasm that the President-
elect had to pass two sleepless nights to attend receptions
accorded to him by thou. ands of people at every important
station en route to Calcutta. The Howrah station was packed
to capacity with anxious crowds of workers and eager public.
Cheer upon cheer greeted his arrival. Heaps of geirlands
were showered upon Savarkar, groups of bands played before
the station, and numerous photographs were taken. Eager
sightseers lined the roadways waiting to cheer the warrior
philosopher. Then followed the largest procession Bengal
ever witnessed. Armed Sikh horsemen led the procession.
Rose water and scents were sprinkled upon the President-
elect by crowds of men and women standing in the balconies,
and on the roofs to witness the mammoth procession and have
a look at the great leader of Hindusthan. This was the biggest
session of the Mahasabha held till then. More than two
lakhs of people participated. In his Presidential Address
Savarkar reiterated the basic tenets of nationalism, reviewed
the problem of minorities, and propounded his doctrine of
national co-ordination of class interests.

Savarkar’s dynamic personality and his clear-cut thinking
and his characteristic fearlessness made an irresistible
impression on the minds of thinking men in the country. Their
repercussions were echoed through different leading news-
papers of India. The HindvMhan Standard, Calcutta,
remarked : “ The president himself is a dynamic personality
who radiates hope where there is defeatism, brings cheer
where there is distress and calls into play creative energy
where there is desolation. The Hindu Mahasabha must be
beholden to Providence that it has succeeded after years of
wandering in the wilderness in claiming for three years in
unbroken succession as its leader and spokesman that high

216 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

priest of militant Indian Nationalism who has dreamt dreams
and seen visions. . . . ” ^

BengaFs another great journal, the Ainrit Bazar Patrika,
observed : “ Whether one agrees with nil his views or not,
Mr. Savarkar compels attention by the boldness and clarity
of his utterances. He knows no doubt or hesitation. His
logic is merciless ; his humour caustic, and his irony efTective.
He is a man with a mission. The faith that burns in him
throws a halo all round and he seems as he delivers liis
message and advances like a conquering liero, sweeping iiway
from his path like cobwebs all time-worn theories arjd
personalities.” Sounding a warning to the Congress, the
Amrit Bazar Patrika further said : “ One consideration is that
Congi’ess has lost its hold over Bengal. We shall not go into
the story today, but it is an admitted fact that it is the
non-communal outlook of the Congress which has failed to
satisfy the Hindus of this Province ” And the paper added :

In Indian polities we have at least a man who is not afraid
to call a spade a spade.”

Styling Savarkar’s Presidential Address as militant, the
Tribune, Lahore, stated : The militancy is not only intel-
ligible, but in part defensible as a natural reaction produced
in the sensitive Hindu minds by the aggressive Communalism
of the Muslim League.”** The New India, (‘ominenting on the
Address, observed : ‘‘ Thrice Mr. Nehru was elected as

Congress President and thrice has Mr. Savarkar been chosen
as the Mahasabha leader. Both have certain qualities in com-
mon. Both made great sacrifices for the country and both
possess a trenchancy of style which is direct and provocative.
Had he been admiitted into the inner cricle of the Congress
fold, I am sure, Mr. Savarkar would have become President
of that organisation. Whether right or wrong, the man is
utterly and downrightly sincere.” ^

Another significant feature attached to the Session was that
the Maharaja of Nepal was given a garden party and a Public
Address under the signature of President Savarkar on behalf
of the Hindu Mahasabha. Ill-health prevented Savarkar from

^ Quoted in The Mahratta, dated 5-1-1940.

- Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid,

W H I R L W I N D P ^ 1 A G A N D A 217

attending the function. The Maharaja himself honoured
Savarkar, when he went to the ‘'cdside of Savarkar and had
a private talk with him about S varkar’s mission for an hour.
During these days Sri N. R. ' u kar also saw Savarkar and
discussed the gcmeral policj^ o (lie Hindu Mahasabha and the
politics i). India.

During the Iasi week of auuary 1940, at Malabar Hill,
Bombay, Savarkar discusser \^' th the leaders of Parsi com-
munity the rights of mo Immediately thereafter

Savarkar made a tour of W st Khandosh in the middle of
March 1940. Such was the \itality and energy of Savarkar in
those days that he ran through a crowded programme of
meetings at several places from Chalisgaon to Daundaiche in
a single day. Paying flying visits and making speeches at
Takarkhed, Shahade arid Prakashe, he came to Talode where
the Jahagirdar received him. The public meeting was attended
by the leaders of the Bhills. It was during these tours that
a Bhill, who had completed his term of punishment in the
Andamans, fell at Savarkar’s feel. The devotion of the con-
victs in the Andamans to Savarkar was boundless. The author
has seen one Kusha Patil, a convict on his return from the
Andamans, paying homage to Savarkar as the ‘ God incarnate ’
of the land ! Kusha Patil said : “ It was through Savarkar \s
care and kind words that I became what I am today ! ” After
addressing very big public meetings at Nandurbar, Pimpalner
and Dhulia, Savarkar returned to Bombay.

In the last week of March 1940, Savarkar left for Salem to
attend the Salem Hindu Conference. Receiving addresses
of welcome en route at several stations, he reached Salem. In
the Municipal House he spoke on the importance of military
training. At the Conference he spoke on the need for Hindu
Sanghatan and military training and exhorted the Hindus to
oppose the Muslim League scheme of partition of Hindusthan.
He paid his respects to Sri Vijay Raghavahariar, an
ex-President of the Hindu Mahasabha, and also once a
president of the I. N. Congress, at his residence.

At Madras on the morning of the 25th March, he waj given
a great ovation. Dr. T. S. S. Raj an, an ex-minister of the
Madras Province and one-time lieutenant of Savarkar in his
London days met him. In the evening before an audience of

218 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

thousands of Hindus Savarkar spoke at the beach on the
need of Hindu Sanghatan ideology and the necessity of oppos-
ing the scheme of partition sponsored by the Muslim League.
In the city he was given addresses of welcome by several
associations of Arya Samajists, Marwaris, Sindhis, Gujaratis,
etc. On the 26th March 1940, the birthday anniversary of
Shivaji, Savarkar spoke on the politics of Shivaji at a mam-
moth meeting held on the beach of Madras under the
presidenlsliip of Dr. P. Varadarajalu Naidu.

After a fortnight Savarkar again left Bombay for his
Travancore tour. Unprecedented receptions were accorded
to him throughout the state. At Quilon he was honoured as
a State Guest. The Changanacheri Municipality accorded hin)
an address of welcome. The leaders of the Christian com-
munity interviewed Savarkar. Representatives of the so-
called untouchables saw him. At the Hindu Conference held on
May 5, 1940, at Changanacheri, Savai'kar spoke on the policy
of the Mahasabha towards the States and the importance of
shuddhi. At TinneveUy station he was accorded a rousing
reception. After a grand procession Savarkar was heard at
a public meeting with rapt attention. On receiving addresses
of welcome at the stations of Kolipatti, Satur and Virudhu-
nagar, he reached Madura, the Athens of South India. Great
honour done only to Great Acharyas was done to Savarkar
by the priests of the famous Meenakshi Temple. At Madura
elephants, horses, camels headed the procession, carrying the
Hindu National flag through decorated streets. Rose water
mixed with fragrant sandalwood was sprinkled on the proces-
sion. After running through a crowded programme, Savarkar
addressed a mammoth meeting in the city and returned to
Bombay.

On July 5, 1940, Savarkar had a second interview with the
Viceroy at Simla. In the evening Sri Jai Lai, a retired judge
of the Lahore High Court, arranged in his honour a tea-party
at his residence. Sir Jogendra Singh, an ex-minister of the
Punjab, Raja Sir Daljit Singh, Sardar Raghuveer Singh and
Sri Ji^tice Varma of the Patna High Court were present.
During the discussion Savarkar impressed upon them the
need for the Hindu Sanghatan Movement. When Savarkar
returned to the Simla Station, he received a telephone

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 219

message from H,H. the Jamsahib of Nawanagar, the then
Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes in India, requesting him
for a meeting, but the same cov d not be arranged for want
of time. On his return journey '.ir Sikandar Hyat Khan, the
Premier of the Punjab, and ‘ v.srkar’s one-time colleague,
learning that Savarkar was he same train, visited his
compcirtment, and greeted hit id colleague and revolutionary
party leader in a most to- .-I ng manner. Sri Walchand
Hirachand, the business magnat of India, also met him in the
train, and had a long talk wil i him. In August he attended
the death anmversary of Tilak at Poona where he averred in
his famous speech that absolute non-violence is absolutely
sinful.

After such a strenuous lightning and whirlwind propaganda
from the northern to the southern ends of Hindusthan,
Savarkar’s health began to deteriorate. The whole burden of
the party, of propaganda, of co-operation, of correspondence,
and of organization rested on him. The wonder was that a
frail frame having gone through the ordeals of an unusually
long torturous incarceration and rigorous hard prison life
in the Andamans could stand such a mighty task ! He was
the only great leader, besides the two great Congress leaders
Gandhiji and Nehru, who could pour out political energy and
vibrate every corner of India, but the hardships of Savarkar
were to those of the latter pair what Himalayas are to the
Satpudas. Savarkar had to struggle against heavy odds,
against the greatest political organization under the sun, had
to create his party funds and leaders, and had to suffer inordi-
nately for want of press. The sciatic pain in his leg linger*ed
for a long time. In the last week of December 1940, the
Annual Session of the Hindu Mahasabha was held at Madura.
Savarkar was unanimously elected President by all Provin-
cial Hindu Sabhas despite his ill-health and his repeated
appeals to the contrary. He reached Madura in a special train
with more than 250 delegates from Maharashtra. He was
brought to the dais, reclining in a chair. In his address he
dealt with the war situation and the doctrine of non-violence.
Those were the days of Individual Civil Disobedience Move-
ment started by the Congress. Some Mahasabhaites felt an
itch for some sort of Direct Action against Government, and

220 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

to that end a resolution was passed during the Session against
Savarkar’s will. To Savarkar courting jail alone was no
patriotism. He wanted Hindu youths to give impetus to the
Militarisation Movement, and get themselves ‘ re-animated
and reborn ’ into a martial race.

On January 19, 1941, Savarkar presided over the Centenary
Ceremony of the Public Library of Nasik, and, after makirsg
a fitting speech in memory of poet Govind. his former col-
league, he unveiled his statue. The Trimbak Municipality
also gave him an address.

On the 13th and 14th of March 1941, Savarkai' attended and
guided the Non-Party Leaders’ Conference which under the
presidentship of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru urged reconstruction
of the Viceroy’s Executive Council.

In the meanwhile, the Direct Action Resolution was dis-
cussed by the Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha
at Nagpur and its operation was finally postponed on June 15,
1941, by the All-India Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha
at Calcutta. This time Savarkar performed the ceremony of
laying the stab of Sri Ashutosh Mookeriec Memorial in the
Ashutosh Hall at Calcutta. The Kali Mandir priests presented
Savarkar with an address. In July 1941, Savarkar attended
the Sapru Conference in Poona and spoke on the Akhand
Hindusthan Resolution whereupon he not only dominated the
Conference, but also took it by .storm. He then left for Sangli
accompanied by Sri N. C. Kelkar, where he was given a great
ovation and addresses of welcome, and where he addressed
several meetings. Overcome with Savarkar’s inspiring mes-
sage, tremendous influence and powerful oratory which he
likened to the power of radium, Sri Kelkar wrote an editorial
in the Kesari under his signature wherein he sent forth a
forceful appeal asking the Mahasabhaites and the Tilakites
to stand by Savarkar irrevocably. On his return Savarkar
addressed a mammoth meeting before the Shaniwarwada at
Poona on the impending calamity, Pakistan.

In November 1941, Savarkar toured Assam, the far Eastern
province of India. At Shillong he was accorded a great
ovation. There he was told that Pandit Nehru’s attention was
drawn to the Muslim influx into Assam, when the Pandit
replied that nature hates vacuum. Savarkar told his audience

WHIRLWIND PROPAGANDA 221

that Pandit Nehru, being neither a philosopher nor a scientist,
did not know that nature abhors poisonous gas !

Then followed in the last week of December 1941, the
Bhagalpur Session of the Hindu Mahasabha, the most momen-
tous and eventful of the Mahasabha Sessions. Government
had put a ban on this Session under the pretext of maintaining
peace and communal harmony in the Province. Savarkar,
who had almost withdrawn from the contest for the presidency
of the Hindu Mahasabha, was provoked into accepting the
presidential office, and he gave a fight for the civic rights and
liberty of the people. A hundred thousand workers rushed to
the scene, f)*oin Rajas to Raises, from millowners to millhands,
from Sanataiiists to Sikhs, from Jains to the so-called un-
touchables, carried on the active struggle, and defended the
honour of the Hindu flag, the fundamental civil liberties of
freedom of speech and freedom of association of the people.
Huge demonstrations were made, sudden open meetings were
held in breach of the ban, invoking and facing lathi charges,
armed mounted soldiers, floggings, bayonets, and imprison-
ment. Organised fury was witnessed in cities, towns and
villages all over the six districts of Bihar which came undei*
the ban.

Many prominent statesmen like Sri Srinivas Sastri con-
demned this unjust ban, Gandhiji could do it only after
having a dig at Savarkar, for he thought that Savarkar had
resorted to his weapon of Satyagraha. But the other Congress
bosses had nothing to say about it. They were busy contem-
plating help to China or Spain torn and afflicted by civil wars.
Savarkar was arrested at Gaya en route to Bhagalpur and
put in jail. And yet to the despair of the forces and fire of
Government the Session was held in Bhagalpur, when Sri G.
V. Ketkar, with the revolting spirit of his grandfather, Lok-
manya Tilak, rose to the occasion and read out Savarkar ’s
Presidential Address ! All the thousands of civil resisters
including Savarkar were released after a week. This Session
is important in many respects. The Bhagalpur Civil Resis-
tance success proved to be an abiding source of strength and
self-confidence, and demonstrated that in spite of castes,
creeds, sects and sections, Hindudom did pulsate with a com-
mon national urge, proving that Pan-Hindu consciousness was

222 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

a vigorous reality. Another aspect of the struggle was that
it proved to the hilt that even the Hindus by themselves could
launch a nation-wide mass movement in defence of the rights
of the people.

Along with the militarisation, political and literary move-
ments, the social movement for the consolidation of the
Hindus went hand in hand as before. Throughout India
Savarkar attended meetings, and presided over conferences
held in connection with the removal of untouchabiUty. During
his lours he visited societies conducted by and for the uplift
of the so-called untouchables, visited their localities, took
water, refreshments and dinners at their quarters, inquired
into their local grievances and encouraged anti-caste dinners
which he had inaugurated since the days of Ratnagiri. At
Chanda, Chalisgaon, Nagai’, Poona, Lahore, Hyderabad
(Sind) , Sukkar and Delhi he attended anti-caste dinners. He
presided over the Dayanand Dalitoddhar Parishad at Ferozpur
(Punjab). At the time of the All-India Sessions of Hindu
Mahasabha, big anti-caste dinners were held in Nagpur and
later on also in Cawnpore. At Monghyr he dined with the
Santhals. At Cawnpore he told the Session during the course
of his Presidential Address that banishing untouchabiUty in
any shape or form was to win a major battle. Depressed
Class leaders from Dr. Ambedkar to Sir Jogendra N. Mandal
saw him, and discussed the problem with him.

Another programme Savarkar attended whenever and
wherever possible was his encouraging visits to the centres,
gatherings and parades of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak
Sangh. He encouraged the Sanghites, patronised them, at
times advised them not to while away their whole life under
incrustation, and asked them to fight for the realization of
their ideal.

CHAPTER XIII

Hindu Manifesto or Savarkarism

I

The ideal and ideology which Sav£irkar laid down and
propagated is called the Hindu Sanghatan ideology or Hindu
Nationalism or Savarkarism. Although a natural development,
an outgrowth and a manilestation of the various views and
tenets upheld by several Hindu nationalists jointly, severally
or individually, the ideology is pul into a form and finally
formulated and codified into an integrated doctrine of social
and political outlook on life by Savarkar. Savarkar is there-
fore to this Hindu ideology what Newton is to the Law of
Gravitation or Marx to Socialism. Each of them applied
his own logic tc> the diverse views and brought unity in
diversity.

According to Carlyle, the merit of originality is not novelty ;
it is sincerity. To him ‘ the believing man is the original
man What is absolutely original ? Some say originality
is but a pair of fresh eyes. Milton and Shakespeare wrote
nothing new. Milton borrowed his description of Paradise, of
Satan and many other parts of his Paradise Lost from
St. Avi’tus who wrote the Expulsion from Paradise, Milton
borrowed largely also from Du Bartas.- Conceding that
Shakespeare found nearly all his material in the writings of
others and that he was indebted to others for most of the
stories of his plays, in his lecture on Shakespeare, Ingersoll
states that * the question is not, Who furnished the stone, or
Who owned the quarry ? but, Who chiselled the statue ? " "
The originality of the philosophy of Marx has often been
questioned as it is said he owed his theory of abolition of
private property to Mably ; he borrowed his labour theory
from Locke and Adam Smith or Ricardo and the theory of
exploitation and surplus value and historical materialism from

1 Carlyle, Lectures on Heroes, pp. 118-19.

“Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, pp. 576-77.

^ Ingersoll, Lectures And Essays^ p. 91.

224 SAVARKAI? AND HIS TIM}’. S

others. But none denies that Marx is the sculptor of socialism.
So, too, though there have been great Hindu leaders of
pronounced Hindu thought before Savarkar or existed even
in his day, none of them advocated all the principles or singly
fought for thorn. They were stone-masons to this ideology,
but the sculptor was Savarkar. In modern times Vivekananda.
Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Hardayal were looked upon as great
Hindu leaders of Thought, who .spoke and wrote about Hindu
thought. Vivekananda was a great philosopher, who devoted
his lifetime and great talents to the unfolding of the Hindu
pliilosophy and propagated it without political bias or a desii’e
to win worldly gain to Mollier India. Nevertheless, he was
of opinion that a nation in India must be a union of those
whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.' His ideal for
India was “ an Islamic body with a Vedantic heart.” -

Conscious of the separatist tendencies of the Muslims, Lajpat
Rai, a staunch Hindu leader, held that Hindus were a nation
in themselves because they represented a type of civilization
all their own. Hardayal wrote in the Pratap of Lahore in
1925 ; “ I declare that the future of the Hindu Race, of

Hindusthan and the Punjab, rests on these four pillars — (1)
Hindu Sanghatan, (2) Hindu Raj, (3) Shuddhi of Moslems,
and (4) Conquest and Shuddhi of Afghanisthan and the
Frontiers. So long as the Hindu Nation does not accomplish
these four things, the safety of our children and great-grand-
children will be ever in danger, and the safety of the Hindu
Race will be impossible.” * Tilak, a representative leader of
Hindu Thought, had neither the time nor an opportunity to
apply his mind to the geographical iiationalism of his day.
The only seer, who was conscious of this ideology in some
way, was Dayananda. But unlike Savarkar, he perhaps held
that there was no knowledge beyond the Vedas ; besides,
Dayananda was more a social than a political force.

Sri Bhai Parmananda w'as a strong advocate of the concept
of the Hindu Nation. Swami Shraddhananda and Bhai
Parmananda were kin to Lajpat Rai just as Hardayal was kith
to Savarkar ; but none was kin to Savarkar. There were

' Swami Vivekananda, Lectures From Colombo To Ahnora, p. 306.

“ My Motherland Series, Sri Ramkrishna Paramahamsa, p. 16.

^ Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Tlimights on Pakistan, p. 123.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 225

promoters of Hindu solidarity and advocates of the removal of
untouchability in Maharashtra and in other provinces too,
before Savarkar. They did their work in their own way
according to the demands of their times and needs as saviours
of Hindusthan. There were champions of Hindu nationalism
amongst the contemporaries of Savarkar. But the ideas of
the social reform of Savarkar’s pi'edecessors and the politics
of his contemporaries found a rare combination in Savarkar.
Savarkar held definite thoughts with regard to the rejuvena-
tion of Hindudom. His -ipproach to the Hindu-Muslim
problem, the doctrine of iibsolute non-violence in thought,
word and deed, and the foreign policy distinguishes him from
all other leaders ; and his radical views about social regenera-
tion and revolution, political concepts and precepts of a nation,
economic policy, problem of the national script and Lingua
Franca, and his ideas about a World Commonwealth or
Humanism form the Hindu Manijesto of a social and political
system for the Hindus in an outspoken, concise and virile foim,
sustaining their struggle for existence and enabling them to
contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world. No
wonder then that Savarkar’s monumental work entitled
Hindutva was acclaimed by Swami Shraddhananda as a
message given at the dawn of a new age ; and Savarkar’s
famous presidential speech at Ahmedabad giving the
fundamental principles of the Hindu Nation was hailed by
Bhai Parmananda as the Bible of Hindu Sanghatan.

What is Hindutva

The word Efindu is the heart of that ideology, and
Hindusthan its geographical centre. According to Savarkar
“ every person is a Hindu who regards and owns this Bharat
Bhoomi — ^this land from the Indus to the seas, as his Father-
land and Holyland — the land of origin of his religion and the
cradle of his faith.” Therefore it follows that the followers
of Vedism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and all Hill-tribes are
all Hindus. Around this life-centre moves Hindutva which
Savarkar defines as not only the spiritual or religious history
of our people, but the history in full pervasion. Hinduism is
only a derivative, a fraction, a part of Hindutva. Hindutva is

15

226 SAVABKAB AND HIS TIMES

not, he observes, particularly theocratic, a religious dogma or
a creed. It embraces all the departments of thought and
activity of the whole being of the Hindu race. Forty
centuries, if not more, he states, liad been at work to mould
it as it is. Prophets and poets, lawyers and lawgivers, heroes
and historians, have thought, lived, fought and died just to
have it spelled thus.*

What is Sanghatan? and Why?

This movement is called Hindu Sanghatan and means
organization for the solidarity and strength of the Hindu
Nation. But what constitutes a nation ?

What Constitutes a Nation?

A nation is a group of mankind which is bound together by
some or all of these common ties such as common religion and
culture, common history and traditions, common literature,
and consciousness of common rights and wrongs, occupying
a territory of geographical unity, and aspiring to form a
political unit. When a nation realizes this ambition, it
becomes a State. A nation may be without a State. A State
is a governmental unit and it may have more than one
nationality under its rule. By ‘ nationality ’, Mr. C. B. Fawcell,
the author of Frontiers — A Study In Political Geography,
understands the group of qualities which characterize the
people of any one nation. French nationality, he says, is that
group of qualities which distinguish the French from other
European people.-

Eminent Authobs on the Pkinciples

The principal elements instrvunental in the formation of a
nation are a common past, a common tradition and a will to
live together. Renan defines a nation as a social group whose
solidarity has been established by the sentiment of the
sacrifices made in the past and of those it is still ready to
make in the future. In his essay on Nationality he observes

* Savarkar, Hindutva, p. 3.

* C. B. Fawcell, Frontiers — A Study In Political Geography, p. 5.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 227

that “ a nation is a living soul, a spiritual principle. . . . One
is the common possession of a rich heritage of memories ; the
other is actual consent, the desire to live together, the will
to preserve worthily the undivided inheritance which has
been handed down.” Renan proceeds ; “ The nation Uke the
individual is the outcome of long past, of efforts and sacrifices,
and devotion.” Prof. Harold J. Laski lays it down that it
(nationality) implies a sense of special unity which marks
off those who share in it from the rest of mankind.
“ That unit is the outcome of common history, of victories
won and traditions created by a corporate effort. There
grows up a sense of kinship which binds men into
oneness. They recognise their hkeness, and emphasize their
difference from other men.” ^ Dr. Holland Rose writes that
“ nationality is at its height a union of hearts once made, never
unmade — a spiritual conception unconquerable, indestruc-
tible.” * “ In reality,” observes Garner, “ a nation is not a
portion of society politically organised, that is, it is not a
State, but in its perfect form it is a portion of a society
definitely separated from the rest of the world by natural
geographical boundaries, the inhabitants of which have a
common civilization, common customs, traits of character and
traditions.” Mr. Israel Zangwill in his Principle of Nationalities
discusses some of the factors that constitute a nation, viz. unity
of religion, unity of language, possession of common traditions
of suffering and of joy. By tradition he means songs, legends,
stories attached to heroes, etc. “ A nationality,” states
Durkheim, the Belgian Sociologist, with admirable brevity,
“ is a group of which the members, for racial or merely historic
reasons, wish to live under the same laws and form a State.”
G. P. Gooch, an eminent historian, in his Nationalism dealing
with some factors that constitute a nation, observes : “ But
the strongest of all is the identity of political antecedents ; the
possession of a national history and consequent community of
recollections ; collective pride and humiliation, pleasures and
regret, connected with the same incidents in the past.” ^

1 Harold J. Laski, Grammar of Politics, pp. 219-20.

2 Quoted in the Principle of Nationalities by Israel Zangwill, p. 28.

® G. P. Gooch, Nationalism, p. 7.

228

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Savarkar on Nation

All these tenets acknowledged as the authoritative exposi-
tion of nationalism vindicate Savarkar’s stand that in
Hindusthan the Hindus are a nation, and other people are
communities and numerically, therefore, minorities. Savarkar
observes that “ the ancient and modem history of the Hindus
is common. They have friends and enemies in common. They
have faced common dangers and won victories in common.
One in national despair and one in national hope, the Hindu.^^
by an admirable process through assimilation, elimination and
consolidation are welded together during the aeons of
common life and common habitat.” Above all, the Hindus art'
bound together, continues Savarkar, by the dearest lies, most
sacred and mo.st enduring bonds of a common Fatherland and
common Holyland. Verily the Hindus, states Savarkai’, as a
people differ most markedly from any other people in the
world than they differ among themselves. All tests whatever
of a common country, race, religion, language that go to entitle
a people to form a nation, entitle the Hindus vdth a greater
emphasis to that claim.

Savarkar declares that the festivals and cultural forms of
the Hindus are common. The Vedic Rishis are their common
pride, their Grammarians Panini and Patanjali, their poets
Bhavabhuti and Kalidas, their heroes Shree Ram and Shree
Krishna, Shiva ji and Pratap, Guru Govind and Banda are a
source of common inspiration. Like their ancient and sacred
language, the Sanskrit, states he, their scripts also are
fashioned on the same basis and the Nagari script has been
the common vehicle of the sacred writings since centuries in
the past.

India is dear to us, further observes Savarkar, because it
has been and is the home of our Hindu Race, the land which
has been the cradle of our prophets and heroes, and Gods and
Godmen. Otherwise, he goes on, land for land, there may be
many a country, as rich in gold and silver on the face of the
earth. “River for river, the Mississippi is nearly as good as
the Ganges and its waters are not altogether bitter. The
stones, trees and greens in Hindusthan are just as good or

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 229

bad stones and trees and greens of the respective species else-
where. Hindusthan is a Fatherland and Holyland to us not
because it is a land entirely unlike any other land in the
world, but because it is associated with our History and has
been the home of our forefathers wherein our mothers gave
us the first suckle at their breast and our fathers cradled us on
their knees from generation to generation,” asserts he.

To Savarkar the Hindu na n is an organic growth and no
paper-make make-.shift. It is noi a mushroom growth. It is not
a treaty nation. It was not cu t'' order. It is not an outlandish
make-shift. It has grown out of this soil and has its roots
struck deep and wide in it. It is not a fiction, he proceeds,
invented to spite the Moslems or anybody in the world. But
it is a fact as stupendous and solid as the Himalayas that
border our North.

Indian and Hindu Nationalisms

The Indian National Congress believed and upheld the
territorial nationalism which they called Indian Nationalism.
To them a nation meant peoples living on a common land.
Whoever came to India, the Arabs, the Jews, the Russians,
the Germans, the Portuguese, the Greeks, they formed a
nation together with the Hindus, because these new-comers
also lived in India. “ Congress committed the serious mistake,”
states Savarkar, “ at its very start of overlooking this
fundamental, social and political principle that in the forma-
tion of nations, religious, racial, cultural and historical
affinities count immensely more than their territorial unity.”
What they called Indian Nation Savarkar called the Indian
Stale, because he believed that the Hindus could form a State
with other minorities.

Savarkar found nothing objectionable in the ideal of Indian
Nationalism which was in fact, says he, a noble one suited to
the Hindu mentality with its synthetic trend, always prone to
philosophy with a universal urge. It is also true, he believes,
that the ideal of politics itself ought to be a human State, all
mankind for its citizens and the earth for its Motherland.
But is territorial unity the only constituent of a common
Nationality ? He replies that not territorial unity, but the

230 SAVAHKAR AND HIS TIMES

religious, racial and cutural unity is what counts most in the
formation of a national unit. The idea of territorial
nationality alone was envisaged by the Congressites, who in
general preferred to be totally ignorant of Muslim history,
theology and political trend of mind. Savarkar observes that
“ Moslems in general and the Indian Moslems in particular
have not yet grown out the historical stage, of intense
religiosity and the theological concepts of State. Their
theological politics divide the human world into two groups
only — ^the Moslem land and the enemy land. All lands Avhich
are either inhabited entirely by the Moslems or ruled over
by the Moslems are Mo.slem lands. To any other land no
faithful Moslem is allowed to bear any loyalty.” Their Holy-
land is far off in Arabia. Their mythology and godrnen, idea.s
and heroes are not the children of this soil. Consequently,
their names and their outlook smack of foreign origin. Their
love is divided. Their love for India as their motherland is
but a handmaid to their love for their Holyland outside India.
“ The territorial patriots wanted the Hindus to cease to be
Hindus at least as a national and political unit. Some of them
actually gloried in disowming themselves as Hindus at all.
But the Moslems remained Moslems first and Moslems last
and Indians never ! ” says Savarkar.

After the fiasco of the Khilafat, the Muslims exploded the
Congress myth of territorial nationalism by migrating to
Moslem lands. Greece, Palestine and even Hungary and
Poland have thousands of Moslems amongst their nationals.
China has crores of Moslems. And still the country of the
Poles continues to be Poland, of the Grecians Greece. There
the Moslems did not dare to distort them, but are quite
content to distinguish themselves as Polish Moslems or
Grecian Moslems or Chinese Moslems. But the Indian
Moslems never identified their aspirations with the national
aspirations of Hindusthan. Gokhale had realised that the
‘ seventy millions of Mohammedans were more or less hostile to
the national aspirations,” * and warned Devi Sarojini Naidu that
the Hindu-Moslem Unity would never come in their lifetime.®
Sir Pherozeshah Mehta had warned the British Government

J Prof. S. R. Parasnis, Namdar Gopal Krishna Gokhale, p. 74.

2 G. A. Natesan & Co., Sarojini’s Speeches and Writings, p. 26.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 231

against the unjust Muslim claims.’ Lala Lajpat Rai had fully
realized the danger of the separatist tendencies of the Muslims
and Dr. Annie Besant had foretold h. her Future of Indian
Politics as early as 1922 that the p' m? -y allegiance of Muslims
was to Islamic countries, not to o ir lotherland,” and warned
in her memorable words : “ In tl i iking of an Independent
India, the menace of Muslim ruic las to be considered.- As
late as 1941, Dr. Ambedkar expr^'.-sed the same kind of grave
doubt about Moslem allegiance t( India when he said, “ Islam
can never allow a true Muslim to adopt India as his Mother-
land and regard a Hindu as his kith and kin.” ■'

So far as the Hindus are concerned, says Savarkar, there
can be no distinction nor conflict in the least between their
commimal and national duties, as the best interest of
Hindudom are simply identified with the best interests of
Hindusthan as a whole. The truer a Hindu is to himself as a
Hindu, holds Savarkar, he must inevitably grow a truer
national as well. The Hindus are the bedrock on which the
Indian Independent State could be built. He asserts : “ A

Hindu patriot worth the name can’t but be an Indian patriot
as well. To the Hindus Hindusthan being the Fatherland and
Holyland, the love they bear to Hindusthan is boundless. That
is why they predominate in the national struggle that is going
on for the overthrow of the British yoke. Even the buried
bones in the Andamans would assert this fact.” Savarkar
further declares that “ we Hindus must have a country of our
own in the solar system and must continue to flourish there as
Hindus — descendants of a mighty people.” Hence their
solidarity, unity and strength should be kept intact. So
Shuddhi for him has not only a religious, but also a political,
national and a secular meaning. If the population of the
Hindus dwindles and the strength of the other faiths out-
numbers them, there would be a serious threat to the building
of peace and prosperity, nay, to the very existence of
Hindusthan.

Savarkar beUeves in the resurrection of the Hindus, who
have stood by the graves of empires and civilizations that

* Sir V. N. Chandavarkar, Presidential Address at Calcutta, p. 6.

2 George S. Artindale, The Mahratta, dated 22-7-1942.

2 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Thoughts on Pakistan, p. 333.

232

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

prospered in other parts of the world. He believes that there
is some such virility and staying power inherent in the Hindu
race as find few parallels in the annals of the world. There-
fore, he observes, that amidst the terrible struggle for
existence, which is incessantly going on in (he creation,
survival of the fittest is the rule. The Hindus survived the
national cataclysms because they were found the fittest to
survive.

Justifiable Nationalism

To those who say that the concept of the Hindu Nation is
parochial, Savarkar asks whether or not the concept of an
Indian Nation itself is parochial in relation to the Human
State. “ Why are you an Indian patriot and not an Abyssinian
one, and go there and fight for their freedom ? Some
Englishmen born in this territory are and may continue to be
Indians. Can, therefore, the overlordship of these Anglo-
Indians be a Swaraj to the Hindus ? Aurangzeb and Tipu,
too, were hereditary Indians. Did that mean that the rule
of Aurangzeb or Tipu was a Swaraj to the Hindus ? No !
Although they were territorial Indians, they proved to be the
worst enemies of Hindudom, and therefore a Pratap, a Shivaji,
a Guru Govindsingh or the Peshwas had to fight against the
Muslim domination and establish a real Hindu Swaraj,” thus
argues Savarkar.

“ In fact, the Earth,” Savarkar observes, “ is our Motherland
and Humanity our nation. Nay, the Vedantist goes further
and claims this Universe for his country and all manifestations
from the stars to the stone his own self. O brothers, the
limits of the Universe — ^there the frontiers of my country lie,
says Tukaram. Why then take the Himalayas to cut us off
from the rest of mankind, and deem ourselves as a separate
nation as Indians and fight with every other country and the
English in particular who after all are our brothers-in-
humanity ! ” The fact, says Savarkar, is that all patriotism
is more or less parochial and communal and is responsible
for the dreadful wars throughout human history.

But according to Savarkar there is an acid test for
distinguishing a justifiable nationalism or communalism from

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 233

an unjust and harmful one. So long as, states he, a nation
or a community tries to defend the just and fundamental rights
of a particular nation or a people or a community against Ihe
unjust and overbearing aggression of other human aggregates
and does not infringe on the equal and just rights and liberties
of others, it cannot bo condemned or looked down upon simply
because the nation or community is a smaller aggregate in
itself. But when a nation or community treads upon the
rights of .sister nations or co iivunities, he continues, and
aggressively stands in the wr. o' forming larger associations
and aggregates of mankind, its nationalism or communalism
becomes condemnable from a human point of view.

nationalism, says Savarkar, when it is aggressive ia as
immoral in human relations as is communalism w’hen it tries
to suppress the equitable rights of other communities and tries
to usurp all to itself. But when Communalism is only
defensive, it is as justifiable and human as an equitable
nationalism itself. The Hindus, Savarkar reiterates, do not
aim at usurping what belongs to others. They do not want
any special privileges, but they will not allow themselves to
be exploited.

Muslims and Minorities

Savarkar was for Hindu-Muslim unity and contemplated a
non-seclarian State for India. He held that it w'as as suicidal
as ridiculous to borrow hostilities and combats of the past
only to fight them out into the present, because Shivaji and
Aurangzeb had done it.^ But he justified the past struggle
of the Rajputs, the Sikhs and the Mahrattas to overthrow the
Mogul rule as he considered, “ as long as the Muslims lived
in India in the capacity of alien rulers, so long, to be willing to
live with them as brothers was to acknowledge national
weakness.” ^ So he was never prepared to accept the Muslim
domination or their demand for vivisection of India. He
contemplated that kind of unity which would go to create an
Indian State in which all citizens irrespective of caste, creed,
race or religion were treated all alike on the principle of ‘ one

1 Savarkar, Foreword to Hindu-Pad-Padshahi.

2 Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence of 1857, p. 75.

234 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

rnan one vote.’ In this view Savarkar was not far away from
the realistic approach of Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta,
Dr. Annie Besant or Dr. Ambedkar. But Savarkar did not
want the majority to go on its knees to the recalcitrant
minority. Therefore, he considered that seeking unity on the
part of the majority was losing it. To those who believed that
the third party, i.e. the British Government, was the hindrance
to the Hindu-Muslim unity, he asked, “Who set Muhammad
Bin Quasim, Mahomed of Gazni and Aurangzeb to lay India
waste with a mad fanatic fury ? Were they the creations of
the third party, the Britishers ? ” He warned the Hindu-
Muslim unity-hankerers that the real question at the root of
the Muslim opposition, displeasure and problem was not a
word here or a song there. The Muslims cherished secret
designs to disintegrate the Indian State and to create a State
within a State or subvert the national State and m the end
wanted to brand the Fatherland of the Hindus and other
non-Muslim sections in Hindusthan with the stamp of
self-humiliation and Muslim domination. He, therefore,
denounced this attitude and declared to the non-Hindus and
especially to the Muslims : “ If you come, with you ; if you

don’t, without you and if you oppose, in spite of you, the
Hindus will continue to fight for their national freedom as
best as they can.”

Savarkar further explained his attitude towards the
minorities in general. The Parsees, he stated, amongst the
other minorities were by race, religion, language and culture
most akin to the Hindus. They had been loyal to India and
had made her their only home. They had produced some of
the best Indian patriots and revolutionaries like Dadabhai
Naoroji and Madame Cama. He, therefore, said that the
Parsees would be incorporated into the common Indian State
with perfect equal rights and trust.

The Christian minority, Savarkar observed, was civil, had
no extra-territorial political designs against India, was not
linguistically and culturally averse to the Hindus and therefore
could be politically assimilated with the Hindus. Only
conversion, he added, should be made voluntary and on a
legitimate basis.

As to the Jews in India, he said, they were too few and

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 235

had given no political or cultural troubles and were not in the
main a proselytizing people. They willed, he continued, to
be friendly towards the Hindus who had sheltered them when
homeless, and could be easily assimilated in a common Indian

^*^us the problem of minorities was not at all the problem
of all minorities, but the problem of only one minority— the
Muslim minority.

And so tar as tbe Muslim community was concerned,
Savarkar said, every equitable treatment which an Indian
citizen could claim on an equality of footing with others in
respect of language, religion and culture, could be given to
them, but they should be held as suspicious friends for at
least some years to come for their extra-territorial designs.

Nationalism and Humanism

Savarkar believes that nationali.sm is but an inevitable step
towards the goal of Humanity and Pan-Human State. Thirty
years ago he wrote that he believed in a universal State
embracing all mankind and where all men and women would
he citizens working for the fruits of the earth, the sun and the
land which constitute the real Motherland and Fatherland of
Man. In fact he said, the world was our country and humanity
was our religion and patriotism. In his youth he wrote that
history was to be studied to weld humanity into a World
Commonwealth. But while the process and struggle, he said,
was going on for welding humanity into a World Common-
wealth, the weak people had gone under and the fittest had
survived. “ Therefore,” he warned the Hindus, “ before you
make out a case for unity, you must make out a case for
survival as a national or a social human unit.” ’ This made
him devote all his energy to Hindu Nationalism as he believed
that Hindu consolidation was a step inevitable in the realiza-
tion of the ideal of a Human State or a World Common-
wealth. Savarkar stressed this point in a recent letter to Guy
A. Aldred, editor of The Word, Glasgow. He said : “ I hold
that although Mankind must march on through nationalism
and federalism, through larger and larger statal incorporations

' Savarkar, Foreword to Hindu-Pad-Padshahi.

236 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

to their ultimate political goal, yet t&e goal is not and cannot
be nationalism but Humanism, neither more nor less. The
ideal of all Political Science and Art must be a Human State.”
“ The Earth is our real Motherland, mankind our Nation and
a Human Government based on equality of rights and dutie.s
is or ought to be our ultimate political goal.” This was a
message sent by Savarkar to the World Fellowship Institution
at Conway, which had chosen him for presiding over their
Annual Session in 1944, which he could not do for reasons of
health.

Thus being a realist and rationalist Savarkar warned the
Hindus in these words ; “ As long as the law of evolution that
lays down the iron command ‘ that the weak and the cowards
are always the victims of the strong and the courageous ’ is too
pensistent and dangerously imminent to be categorically
denied by the law of righteousness whose mottos shine
brilliantly and beautifully — ^but as the stars in the heavens
do, — so long the banner of nationality will refuse to be
replaced by that of Universality.^ Savarkar declared in
unmistakable terms that as long as the whole world was red
in tooth and claw and the national and racial distinction so
.'Strong as to make men brutal, so long if India had to live at
all a life whether spiritual or political according to the light
of her soul, she must not lose the strength born of national
and racial cohesion.- Therefore, Savarkar again emphasizes :

“ As long as every other ‘ Ism ’ has not disowned its special
dogmas, whichever tend into dangerous war cries, so long no
cultural or national unit can afford to loosen the bonds,
especially those of a common name and a common banner that
are the mighty sources of organic cohesion and strength.”*
He substantiated his point by citing the failure of Buddhism.
Though a universal religion without any the least ulterior
end in view, it could not, Savarkar observed, eradicate the
seeds of animal passions or of political ambitions. He, there-
fore, asked the Hindus to be on their guard against the Mumbo
Jpmbo of Universalism and non-violence which crush the

1 Savarkar Hinduiva, p. 30.

2 /bid., p. 19.

2 Ibid., p. 67.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 237

faculty even of resisting sin, crime and aggression, nay, kill
the very sense of wrong and the power of resistance.

Savarkar n ylfs the Hindus to take Universalism cautiously.

He observes : “ What was the use of a universal faith that
instead of soothing the ferociousness and brutal egoism oi the
nations only excited their lust by leaving India detencelesa
and unsuspecting?”* Nevertheless, describing the glory
and grandeur of Buddha, he .says: “But as it is. thou art
ours as truly as Sbri Rama or '^bri Krishna, or Shri Mahaveer
had been, and as thy words were but echoes of yearnings of
our sou\, t\vy vision^:, dreams oi our taco ; eveiv

so, i£ ever ibe law ot rigliteousuess rules triumplrant on ihls
our human plane, then thou wilt find that the land t\va\ cradled
thee, and the people that nursed thee, will have contributed
most to bring about the consummation if indeed the fact of
having contributed thee has not proved that much already.'” -
What heaps of books and lakhs of preachings on Buddlia
could not expound, Savai'kar did in a paragraph !

So from the point of nationalism, humanism and univer-
salism, Savarkar gives his immortal message to the Land of
Karmay the land of the Vedas, the land of Rama, Krishna,
Buddha, Mahaveer, Vikramaditya, Shalivahan, Pratap,
Shivaji, Guru Govindsingh, Banda, Dayananda, Vivekananda
and Tilak : “ Therefore, ye, O Hindus, consolidate and

strengthen Hindu nationality : not to give wanton offence to
any of our non-Hindu compatriots, in fact to any one in the
world but in just and urgent self-defence of our race and land ;
to render it impossible for others to betray her or to subject
her to unprovoked attacks by any of those ‘ Pan-isms ’ that
are struggling forth from continent to continent ! ’’ “ As long
as other communities in India or in the world,” Savarkar
concludes, “ are not respectively planning India first or
mankind first, but all are busy in organising offensive and
defensive alliances and combinations on entirely narrow racial
or religious or national basis, so long, O Hindus, strengthen if
you can those subtle bonds that like nerve-threads bind you
in One Organic Social Being. Those of you who in a suicidal
fit try to cut off the most vital of those ties and dare to disown
the name Hindu will find to their cost that in doing so they

' Savarkar, Hindutva^ p. 21. - Ibid., p. 30.

238 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

have cut themselves off from the very source of our racial
Life and Strength.” *

“Thirty crores of people with India for their basis of
operation, for their Fatherland and for their Holyland, with
such a history behind them, bound together by ties of a
common blood and common culture, can dictate their terms
to the whole world. A day will come when mankind will
have to face the force. Equally certain it is that whenever
the Hindus come to hold such a position whence they could
dictate terms to the whole world — those terms cannot be very
different from the terms which the Gita dictates or the
Buddha lays down. A Hindu is most intensely so, when he
ceases to be a Hindu ; and with a Shankar claims the whole
earth for a Benares — Varanasi Medini — or with a Tukaram
explains ‘ my country ? Oh brothers, the limits of the
Universe — there the frontiers of my covmtry lie,' ” sings the
vedic soul of Savarkar.^

n

Relative Non-Violence and Absolute
Non-Violence

The peace and prosperity of mankind is the central aim of
Savarkarian philosophy. To Savarkar what is conducive and
whatever contributes to the human good is moral, justifiable,
desirable, and just. To it relative non-violence is a virtue
and absolute non-violence is not only sinful, but immoral.
Savarkar, therefore, hates the monomaniacal principal of
absolute non-violence. A lione.ss besmeared with a deer’s
blood suckling her cubs at her breast is his nature’s picture.
He believes that man could not have saved himself from
complete extinction had he not succeeded in adding strength of
artificial arms to his natural arms. He tells you that the lesson
is branded on every page of history down to the latest page
that nations which, other things equal, are superior in military
strength are bound to survive, flourish and dominate while
those which are militarily altogether weak are politically
subjected or cease to exist at all. Who will doubt this truth ?

I Savarkar, Hindutva, pp. 116-17.

^Ibid., p. 117.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 239

In fact, says Dr. Dean Inge, history is to remain a dismal
oniugation of the verb ‘ to eat ' in the active and passive.
Hindu soul aims at equality not only between human beings,
u,t abo equality amongst all beings. Therefore HindusVban
nreached and practised that strained water be given for horses
InA even corn-throwing centres be opened in the oceans so
that big fishes should not swallow little ones. But while
Buddhism was at its meridian, the Huns and the Shaks came

down like an avalanche upon India and trampled under their
feet Hindu families, their thrones, and their Gods. Pointing this
to the Hindus, Savarkar tells them that the Holy land of
their love was devastated and sacked by hoards of barbarians,
so inferior to them in language, religion, philosophy, mercy
and all the soft and human attributes of man and God ; — ^but
superior to them in strength alone — strength that summed up
its creed, in two words — Fire and Sword ! In trying to kill
killing India got killed and at last found that palm leaves at
times are too fragile for steel. But during the days of
Vikramaditya and Shalivahan valour accomplished what
formulas had failed to do. Therefore, Savarkar concludes : “ We
denounce the doctrine of absolute non-violence not because we
are less saintly, but because we are more sensible ! ” The
truth of this doctrine was demonstrated later on in practice
by the protagonists of the doctrine of non-violence in the
measures adopted by them in Hyderabad, Kashmir and
elsewhere.

Savarkar is one with the greatest of world thinkers in this
view. The controversy between the cult of absolute
non-violence and the principle of relative non-violence is
age-long. All the saviours of humanity have supported the
principle of relative non-violence. In Hindusthan, Manu’s
immortal epigraphic command that an aggressor must be
killed instantly, stands out distinctly. The great Shakespeare
lays down that arms are fair when the intent of bearing them
is just. Thomas Paine denounced the Quaker cult during
the American War of Independence. “ I am thus for a
Quaker,” says Paine, “ that I would gladly agree with all the
world to lay aside the use of arms and settle matters by
negotiation, but unless the whole world wilb, the matter ends
and I take my musket and thank heaven He has put it in my

240 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

power. . . . We live not in a world of angels. The reign of
satan is not ended, neither can we expect to be defended by
miracles.” At another time he declai*es : “ Wherefore, if you
really preach from conscience and mean not to make
a political hobby-horse of your religion, convince the world
thereby proclaiming your doctrine to our enemies for they
likewise bear arms. . . . Preach repentance to your king and
warn him of eternal ruin ... ye would not spend your
invectives against the injured and insulted only, but like
faithful ministers, cry aloud and spare none.” ^ President
Masaryk asked Tolstoy, the Russian apo.stle of the doctrine of
absolute non-violence, why should a peace-loving man void
of evil intent be slain and not the man of evil purpose who
kills. SavarkiU' in his immortal work The Indiav War of
Independence of 1857, observes : “ When Humanity will reach
the goal of universal justice, of ultimate beatitude, when the
millennium preached by the incarnations, by the Messiahs,
and by religious preachers will be an accomplished fact on
earth, when the resignation taught by Christ in the glorious
words ‘ Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to
him the other also ’ will be impracticable — ^because, there will
be no one to hit on the right cheek, in such a divine age, if
anyone revolts, if anyone sheds a drop of blood, if anyone even
whispers the word revenge, then at once, the sinner by this
act, by his very utterance, would be eternally damned. For,
when truth reigns in every heart, revolt must be a heinous
sin. When everyone abhors killing, to shed a drop of blood
must be a sin.” -

Savarkar continues in his rational approach to this problem :
“ But so long as that divine age has not arrived, so long as
the highly auspicious end remains only in the lines of saintly
poets and in the prophecies of the divinely inspired, and so
long as, even to nxake that state of universal justice possible,
the human mind has to be busy eradicating sinful and
aggressive tendencies, so long, rebellion, bloodshed and
revenge cannot be purely sinful.”

Savarkar believes that revolt, bloodshed and revenge have

1 Watts & Co., Some of Paine's Masterpieces, pp. 35-36.

2 Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence of 1857, p. 273.

* Ibid.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 241

often been instruments created by nature to root out injustice
and introduce an era of justice. He proceeds : “ And when
justice uses these terrible means for her salvation, the blame
of it does not lie on justice but on the preceding cruel injustice,
the power and insolence of which called forth the means. We
do not hold the justice which gives the death sentence
responsible for bloodshed, but rather the injustice which is
taken to the gallows.'’ Savarkar brilliantly concludes :
“ Therefore the sword of Brutus is holy. Therefore, the
Waghanakh of Shivaji is sacred. Therefore, the bloodshed in
the revolutions in Italy is of fair fame. Therefore, the
beheading of Charles I is a just deed. Therefore, the arrow
of William Tell is divine. And the sin of brutality falls heavily
on the heads of those who committed the provoking
injustice.” ^

Savarkar also believes that had the world no fear of revolt,
bloodshed and revenge, the earth would have bent under the
devil-dance of unchecked robbery and oppression. “ If
oppression were to be secure,” he observes, ‘'from the fear
that Nature would, sooner or later, create the avenger of
temporary injustice, the whole world would have swarmed
today with Tsars and Robbers ! But because every Hiranya-
Kashipu has his Narasimha ; because every Dushshasana has
his Bheema ; because every evil-doer has his avenger, there is
still some hope in the heart of the world that injustice cannot
last.” -

But in India when Savarkar was passing his days in
internment the political leaders had made a hobby-horse of
the doctrine of non-violence and offered their advice to the
insulted, enslaved and the butchered Hindus, supporting
indirectly Nietzsche who believed that the resignation of
Christianity was meant for the defeated and the down-
trodden ! In no enslaved country humbled to dust, the
doctrine of absolute non-violence has ever been discussed in
so dry, dull, futile and longwinded a manner as has been done
on the advent of Gandhian leadership in India ! This futile
discussion and reiteration of this doctrine bankrupted the wit,
baffled the brains, benumbed the revolutionary fervour, and

1 Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence of 1857 y p. 274.

2 Ibid.

16

242 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

seduced the hearts of the Hindus, softening their limbs and
stiffening the bones of the enemies ! Leader after leader blew
hot and cold in the same breath while dealing with this
doctrine. Some clianged sides, abjui-ed their faith, revoked
their statements, and condenmed their former patriotism and
even previous life. Devi Sarojini Naidu, who sang of the
Gandhian doctrine in her later life, had shouted from the
Lucknow Session of the Indian National Congress in 1916 :
“ It may seem a kind of paradox that I should be asked to
raise my voice on behalf of the disinherited manhood of the
country, but it is suitable that I, who represent the other sex,
that is, the mothers of the men whom we wish to make men
and not emasculated machines, should raise a voice on behalf
of the future mothers of India to demand that the birth-right
of their sons should be given back to them, so that tomorrow’s
India may be once more worthy of its yesterday. . . . The
refusal of the privilege, that gifted privilege and inalienable
right to carry arms, is to insult the very core of their valiant
manhood ! ” '

Such was the realistic tone of politics of Tilak’s India. But
these very leaders and patriots like Sarojini Naidu became
parrots and perched on the cult of absolute non-violence
of Gandhism and made a paradox of their politics by thrusting
down the throats of youths the opiates of absolute non-violence
in season and out of season. The effect was tremendous and
terrible. For a time the revolutionary urge cooled down in
the country to a great extent, and people lost even the sense
of resisting crime and aggression and at last the emasculated
Hindu nation feU an easy prey to the organized and furious
Muslim violence, and was torn to pieces ! The lambs resolved
to lead a vegetable life, but the wolves were not concerned
with their pious resolution ! It was Savarkar alone who
raised his mighty voice against this suicidal doctrine and
applied most of his herculean energy to the task of warning
the leaders and the Hi|ndus against the impending holocaust
that was soon to overtake them. Savarkar’s was a peculiar
Maharashtrian approach. Even the great Maharashtrian
saint, Tukaram, sings in a fit of practical righteousness : “ Kill

• G. A. Nate^n & Co., Sarojini^s Speeches & WriHngSt p. 7B.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 243

the scorpion, the despiser of the worship of God, if it enters
the shrine ; give tit for tat. No mercy to the wicked.”

Revolutions: Why and How

Savarkar’s thoughts on the how and why of a revolution are
noteworthy.

“ A revolution is evolution in leaps.”

“ Revolutions are not r. alated by fixed laws. They are
not accurately working rs d ines like clocks and watches.
They have their own way o. marching. They can only be
regulated by a general principle ; but they brusli away minor
rules by their very shock. Revolution has only one watch-
word — ‘ Dash on ! ’ All sorts of new and unthought of
circumstances might arise during its progress ; but one must
stop, one must overcome them and press forward.” *

“ There is no other life-killing poison to a revolution than
indecision. The sooner and the more sudden the spreading
of a revolution, the greater are its chances of success. If
delay is made after the first start and breathing time is given,
the enemy gets time to guard himself ; those who rise
prematurely lose confidence, when they see no one joining
them ; and a clever enemy, profiting by the past, puts obstacles
in the way of those who want to rise later. Therefore, to give
the enemy time between the first rising and the spreading of
a revolution is always harmful to the revolution.” “

“ The destruction of individuals, of society and of Kingdoms
is caused as much by anarchy as by foreign rule, as much by
the absence of any bond as the presence of cruel bonds. If
any revolution forgets this sociological truth it generally kiUs
itseK in the end. . . . That revolution which destroys injustice
and oppression is holy. But when a revolution roots out one
kind of injustice and oppression and plants, at the same
moment, the seeds of another kind, it becomes at once unholy
and the seeds of destruction accompanying that sin soon put
an end to its life. . . . The moment the foreign power is
destroyed, in order to guard the country from the evils of
anarchy, a constitution liked by the majority of the people

1 Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence of 1857, p. 159.

2/Wd., p. 128.

244 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

should be at once established and that constitution should be
obeyed with reverence by all. In short, the rule should be
revolution outside and constitution within, chaos outside and
cosmos within, sword outside and law within.” '

On Foreign Policy

Savarkarism advocates that Indian foreign policy should
hinge on a very practical stand, on the principle of serving,
safeguarding and promoting the national self-interest,
Savarkar avers that it should not depend on isms. The sound
principle, he observes, in politics lays it down that no form
of Government or political ‘ ism ’ is absolutely good or bad
under all circumstances to all people alike. He, therefore,
thinks it inadvisable to dictate to Germany, Japan, Italy or
Russia to choose a particular form of Government. Democracy
itself demands that the will of the people must prevail in
choosing their own Government. Naturally he holds that all
those nations that are friendly or likely to be helpful to the
Hindu Nation would be friends and allies of Hindusthan. To
him, no academic and empty slogans of Democracy or Nazism
or Fascism can be the guiding principle to India’s foreign
policy. He says we should never hate or love Fascists or
Bolshevists or Democrats simply on the ground of any
theoretical or bookish reasons. There was no reason, he said,
to suppose that Hitler was a human monster because he passed
off as a Nazi or Churchill was a demi-God because he
called himself a democrat. Savarkar wants Hindusthan to
maintain a policy of neutrality towards all nations in the world
in respect of their internal affairs or mutual relations with
each other.

All nations look first to their own security and prosperity
while dealing with international problems. They make or
unmake pacts with this end alone in view. Let alone the
history of pacts and treaties which Britain made with Indian
Princes, what great nations have stood by their pledges ? By
an agreement the U.S.A. was pledged to protect Korea. In
1905 Japan swallowed Korea and U.S.A. was the first nation
to recognize the Korean conquest ! France and Columbia

^ Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence of J857, pp. 348*49.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 245

know how U.S.A. stood by the pledges given and agreements
made wi.h them. The world knows the fate of Nine-Party
Treaty of Brussels to stop Japanese Aggression. They orated
and adjourned. The history of the Treaty of Rapallo, the
Treaty of Berlin, the Treaty of 1933 and the dramatic end of
the Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 between Germany and
Russia is stunning and shocking. Why, in the last week of
December 1948. President Truman declared that contracts
were not sacred to Soviv' Government. Savai'kar believes
that a powerful centralised -tate of Hindusthan will contribute
effectively to build up an endurable and enduring peace for
the world because her role is neither selfish nor aggressive.

Economic Problem

As regards the economic problem, Savarkar’s approach is
at once rationalistic and nationalistic. Savarkar is not an
orthodox Hindu, so also he is not a believer in mechanical and
orthodox socialism. He is not one with Manu or Marx.
According to him man has got a stomach, but stomach is not
the man. The Cliristian maxim that man does not live by
bread alone appeals to him. Savarkarism believes in the
spiritual truth that racial, cultural, national and several other
aspects also go to constitute the human nature. Therefore,
he believes that the attempt to interpret all human history
and human activities in economical terms alone is altogether
one-sided and amounts to maintaining that man has no other
urge in him to live but hunger.

Savarkarian outlook on life holds that besides hunger — the
problem of bread — ^man has other appetites as fundamental as
that, sensual, intellectual, sentimental, some national, some
acquired, some personal, some social, and his Being is
complex ; so also is his history. Savarkarism considers that
the solution suggested to the effect that the economical
community of interests provides the only and the best solvent
of all religious, racial, national and other antipathies that
divide mankind in the world is as superficial as simple. The
fact that in Europe, Savarkar asserts, the very races and
nations wherein the prophets of this school arose and preached
their doctrines and where giant efforts were made to

246 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

revolutionize all human institutions and recast them into this
economical mould alone ; religious, racial and national
differences have been assuming formidable proportions and
have been persisting to assert themselves in Germany, Italy,
France, Poland, England, Spain, etc. in spite of centuries of
the most intense propaganda to insist on an economical
community of interest, is enough to prove that you cannot
altogether eliminate all religious, racial or national factors
at a stroke, at a thought ! ^

Those who advance the easy argument ‘ If but you persuade
all to unite on the economic plane and to forget every other
superstitious difference as the racial, cultural, etc. ’ forget
themselves, argues Savarkar, that the very ‘ but ’ in their
argument rebuts the practical utility at any rate, apart from
its theoretical soundness. Consequently he warns the Hindus
that they must in no case delude themselves with the belief
that the economic programme alone will ever suffice to solve
all cultural, racial and national dangers that threaten them
throughout India. Taking into consideration the special
circumstances obtaining in India and the stage of social
progress, he thinks, the only school of economics which will
suit our requirements in the immediate future is the school of
Nationalistic economy and styles his economic policy as the
national co-ordination of class interests. This immediate
programme of national co-ordination of class interests is being
practised in free India in foto by leaders like Pandit Nehru
who were extolled to the skies for many years in the past as
* super ’ Socialists. What Savarkar defined in 1939, Pandit
Nehru and others realized in 1948 !

Ill

Savarkar’s India

In short, under the set of circumstances obtaining in India
and in the context of the present world set-up, the following
ideal is to be realized in the immediate future.

Note . — For quotations cited above without references, please refer to
Savarkar’s Presidential Addresses at Karnavati, Nagpur,
Calcutta and Madura.

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 247

(a) In Savarkar's India all citizens would have equal rights
and obligations irrespective of caste, creed, race or
religion provided they avow and owe an exclusive and
devoted allegiance to the State.

(b) All minorities would be given effective safeguards to
protect their language, religion, culture, etc. but none
of them would be allowed to create a State within a
State or to encroach upon the legitimate rights of the
majority.

(c) The fundamental rights of freedom of speech, freedom
of conscience, of worship, of association, etc. would be
enjoyed by all citizens alike ; whatever restrictions
would be imposed on them in the interest of the public
peace and order or national emergency would not be
based on any religious or racial considerations alone
but common national grounds.

(d) One man one vote would be the general rule irrespec-
tive of caste, creed, race, or religion.

(e) There would be joint electorates.

(f) Services would go by merit alone.

(g) Primary Education will be free and compulsory.

(h) Every minority would have separate schools to
train their children in their own tongue ; their religious
and cultural institutions would receive Government
help also for these, but always in proportion to the taxes
they pay into the common exchequer.

(i) The residuary powers would be vested in the Central
Government.

(j) Nagari would be the national script, Hindi, the Lingua
Franca and Sanskrit, the Devabhasha of India.

n

(1) People would first of all welcome the machine age. The
handicrafts would, of course, have their place and
encouragement. But national production would be on
the biggest possible machine scale.

248 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

(2) As the peasantry and the working classes form literally
the chief source of national wealth, health, and strength,
every effort would be made to reinvigorate them and
the villages which are their cradle. Peasants and
labourers would be enabled to have their share
in the distribution of wealth to such an extent as
would enable them not only to live with a bare margin
of existence, but with the average scale of a comfortable
life free from wants. Nevertheless, it would be
remembered that they being a part and parcel of the
nation as a whole, would share common obligations and
re.sponsibilities and therefore would only receive their
share in such a way as would be consistent with the
general development and security of national industry,
manufacture and wealth in general.

(3) As the national capital is under the present circum-
stances mainly individual and indispensable for the
development of National Industries and Manufactures,
it would also receive due encouragement and
recompense.

(4) The interests of both the capital and labour would bo
sub-ordinafed to the requirements of the nation as a
whole.

(5) If an industry is flourishing, the profits would be shared
in a large portion by the labourers. But on the contrary,
if it is a losing concern, not only the capitalist, but to a
certain extent even the labourers would have to remain
satisfied with diminishing returns so that the National
Industry as such would not altogether be undermined
by the over -bearing attitude of the selfish class interests
of either the capitalists or the workers.

(6) Every step would be taken by the State to protect
national industries against foreign competition.

(7) The key industries or manufactures and such other
items would be altogether nationalised if the National
Government could afford to do so and could conduct
them more efficiently than private enterprise.

(8) The same principle would apply to agriculture. Govern-
ment would take over the land and introduce State

HINDU MANIFESTO OR SAVARKARISM 249

culti'' ation if it could serve to train up the peasant
class as a whole with the use of big machines and would
cultivate on a large and scientific scale.

(9) All strikes and lockouts which are obviously meant or
inevitably tend to undermine and cripple National
Industries or production in general or are calculated to
weaken the economic strength of the nation as a whole
would be referred to State arbitration and settled or in
serious cases quelled

(10) Private property would be in general held inviolate. In
no ease there would be on the part of the State any
expropriation of such properly without reasonable
recompense.

Thus Savarkar's India would be a democratic State in
which the countrymen belonging to dilTcrent religions, sects
or races would be treated with ijerfect equality and none
would be allowed to dominate others or would be deprived
of his just and equal rights of free citizenship, so long as
every one discharges the common obligation which one owes
to the State as a whole.

Hindusthan, the Motherland and Holyland of the Hindus,
from the Indus to the Seas would be an organic undivided
State. The appellation of this Bhai'at Bhooini would remain
as Bharat or Hindusthan.

In Savarkar’s India none would dare convert Hindus by
fraud or force. Everywhere the Indians would be respected
as citizens of a great nation. In that India relative non-violence
would be regarded as virtuous.

The Hindus would be a castelcss society, a consolidated,
modernised and up-to-date nation. Their marriage customs
would be secularised and voluntary inter-caste marriages
would be freely performed. Hindu corpses would be burnt
with electricity.

In Savarkar’s India science would lead all material progress
and things, and would annihilate superstitions There would
be a total liquidation of landlordism. All the land would
belong to the State by and by. All key industries would be
nationalized. Agriculture would be mechanized. India would

250 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

be self-sufficient in respect of food, clothes, shelter, and
defence.

Savarkar’s India would have unbounded faith in a World
Commonwealth as his political philosophy conceives that the
Eai’th is the Common Motherland and Humanism the
patriotism of man, but his India would not go under during
the process which leads to the welding of Humanity into a
World Commonwealth. In international politics Savarkar’s
India would help to build world peace and prosperity.

CHAPTER XIV

Differences with the Congress

I

Owing to their stupendous ignorance of and a wrong
approach to the Moslem problem, the Congress leaders
betrayed a woeful lack of self-confidence in the conduct of
the national struggle. This ultimately discredited the prestige
and patriotism of the Hindus, undermined the pov/er of the
national majority, and mortgaged the destiny of the country
to the anti-national forces.

Savarkar’s insight perceived this growing danger from the
designs of the awakened Muslim mind. He knew that Muslim
opposition to the national aspirations was not confined to a
song here or a piece of music there. According to him there
was a fundamental difference in their outlook on life and
literature and in their aspirations for the governance of
Hindusthan as a nation. Therefore the first thing Savarkar
did was to strive to bring into operation the Federal part of
the 1935 Act, and frustrate the Muslim designs. Though the
Federal part of this Act, he said, handed over no real power
especially in the matter of Military and Foreign policy to the
representatives of the people, it offered an opportunity for the
realization of national unification of the States and other
parts under the British occupation into an organized and
corporate whole. But partly being not sure of the party
domination at the Centre, and partly being afraid of the
opposition led in the field by the youthful left-wing forged by
President Subhas Bose, the Congress High Command
bypassed the issue of Federation, Not because there was no
promise for immediate independence that the Congress did
not accept the Federation. The Congress could have fought
here, too, to undo the unsatisfactory portion of the Federation.

A shrewd and practical politician as he was, Mr. Jinnah
feared that if the Federation came into operation, it would
weld India into a unified and united State under which the

252 SAVARKAH AND HIS TIMES

separatist designs of the Muslims would be totally crushed.
Hence he condemned the Federation Scheme as ‘thoroughly
rotten, fundamentally bad and totally unacceptable ’ ' to the
Muslims. In fact, this fear of Jinnah fully justified Savarkar,
Bhai Parmananda and Dr. Moonje in their pro-Federation
stand which was conducive to national solidarity. Had the
Congre.ss accepted the Federal part of the Government of
India Act of 1935, it would have made the Central Government
an irresistible and irremovable power that would have been
the death-warrant of the separatist Muslim ambitions, and
would have muzzled the four or five Muslim-ruled rebellious
provinces into complete subordination. But short-sighted,
irrational and irresolute as its stand was, the Congre.ss lost
a unique opportunity to consolidate and strengthen the
integrity of India.

About this time World War II broke out. The Federation
Scheme was suspended. The Congress party gave up power
in all seven provinces, went into wilderness demanding the
war and peace aims of the British Government, and launched
an individual Civil Disobedience Movement. Mr. Jinnah
rejoiced at this and declared in his Presidential Address at
the Annual Session of the Muslim League at Madras with
great joy ; “ After the war had broken out the first good news,
along with other bad news that we got, was the declaration
of the Viceroy that His Majesty’s Government are pleased to
suspend the All-India Federation Scheme embodied in the
Government of India Act, 1935 (cheers). . . . India’s future
constitution will be considered de novo, including the policy
and the plan on which the Government of India Act, 1935, was
based. That was no doubt a great relief, because it was
against that part of the Act that Muslim India was fighting
from the very commencement.” ”

When the Congressmen gave up ministries, the Legislatures
of the Muslim majority provinces had hardly any Muslim
League members. But thanks to the jail-seeking policy of the
Congress party, Mr. Jinnah was given sufficient time to
consolidate his position and with what little strength he had
in those provinces at his command, he soon established League

’ Z. A. Suleri, My Leader, p. 93.

- Ibid., p. 99.

DIFFERENCES WITH THE CONGRESS 253

Ministries in five provinces. These Ministries proved a
stepping-stone to his future plans nd policies. The end of the
rule of the Congress party in thi . even provinces wa.s hailed
by Muslims all over India as tl * Jay of Deliverance. Their
Pirpur Committee’s report lev*, led heinous charges against
the Congress party. The Congress leaders on their part
produced certificates of their • conduct from the British
Governors. On top of it all, dr Jinnah continually voiced
that “ A parliamentary system ba^ed on the majority principle
must inevitably mean the rule of the major nation. . . .
Western Democracy was totally unsuited for India and
its imposition would be resisted by the Mussalmans.” ‘ The
Mu-slims, Jinnah said, should be treated as a separate nation
and not a minority, otherwise there would be irretrievable
disaster to the country.

The Congress leaders thought that Jinnah was the voice
of the Muslim classes and not of the Muslim masses. The
Congress party and Pandit Nehru particulcirly stai'ted Muslim
mass-contact drive to attract Muslim masses to the Congress.
As this reading of the MusUm mind was historically untrue,
the Muslim contact movement of Nehru prov^ to be not only
a dismal failure, but also proved to be a Muslim conflict move-
ment. Mr. Jinnah had made no secret of his burning hatred
for the concept of the Constituent Assembly of an all-India
character. To the Muslims he said : “ We do not want in any
circumstances a constitution of an all-India character with one
Government at the centre. ... If we once agree to that, let
me tell you, the Muslims will be absolutely wiped out of
existence.” -

On September 1, 1939, Britain declared War on Germany
‘ to save the whole world from the pestilence of Nazi tyranny
and in defence of all that was sacred to man.’ H.E. the
Marquis of Linlithgow, the Viceroy of India, proclaimed that
India was at war with Germany and expressed that India
would fight for human freedom as against the rule of force.
Soon after this Gandhiji told the Viceroy that he was not
thinking of the deliverance of India, and he broke down before

^ Z. A. Suleri, My Leader, pp. 117-18.

2 Ibid., p. 130.

2 Chur<mill on September 3, 1039.

254 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

the Viceroy as he pictured before himself the House of
Parliament and the Westminster Abbey and their possible
destruction. Pandit Noliru on his return journey from China
issued a statement at Rangoon declaring that India had no
desire to take advantage of Britain’s difficulties and was not
out to bargain.

The Liberals thought it disastrous if India were to offer help
subject to conditions. The Parsees offered prayers and H.H.
the Aga Khan appealed for heartfelt, loyal and unstinted
service to the cause of the British Empire. Dr. Ambedkar
lamented that India had no voice in her foreign policy in
declaring war and in the making of peace. He further said
that India should reuuiin witiiin the Bi itish Commonwealth of
Nations and strive to achieve the status of equal partnership
therein. He, too, appealed to Government to take steps to
prepare Indians for defending their country. The Muslim
League offered conditional support asking the British Govern-
ment to create a sense of security and satisfaction amongst
the Mussalmans, and curiously enough urged His Majesty’s
Government to satisfy the Arab national demands.

As President, of the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar declared
that Britain’s claim that she entered war to Scifeguard the vital
principles affecting human freedom was a political stunt so
long as she continued to hold India in pohtical bondage. In
his interview, on October 9, 1939, he plainly told the Viceroy
at Delhi that none of the belligerent powers in Europe
including Poland and, above all, Russia was actuated by any
moral or human principle of Democracy, or the liberties of
the down-trodden or political justice and equality beyond
what suited the self-interests of the respective nations and
states.

However, Savarkar said that the Hindu Mahasabha felt
itself concerned with the issues at stake in the war so far as
they were hkely to affect the safety and interests of the Hindu
Nation. He, therefore, appealed to the British Government
to make an unambiguous declaration of gi-anting Hindusthan
the status of a self-govez’ning Dominion as an immediate step
leading towards the final goal of complete independence and
to introduce immediately responsible Government at the
Centre based on the democratic principle of ‘ one man one

differences with the congress 255

.vote/ He urged the Viceroy to guard India’s Western
Frontiers by Hindu forces, to introduce compulsory military
training in High Schools and Colleges throughout India (as in
Englar d), to start and encourage Rifle Classes, to expand the
Indian Territorial Force, to inspire the people of India to feel
instinctively that the Indian Army was the Army of the people
of India and not of Britain, and he appealed to the British
Government not to use Indian forces outside India proper.
Savarkar called upon Capital and Labour in the countiy to
utilize thvT unique opportunity of the European War to capture
the markets by working to •,'apacity all the existing industries
and by starting new ones and replacing at full speed all foreign
articles by Swadeshi.'^

But the main object of Savarkar ’s war policy was to make
Hindus re-animated and re-born into a martial race. It w'as
in this belief that, like Tilak, he had supported from the
cellular jail in the Andamans the militarization movement
during World War I, and was delighted to hear that his
counti-ymen were allowed to go to Europe in thousands to
light against the best military power in the world. In his
youth, he wrote from London in 1906 quoting from the
Spectator that soldiers could be thoroughly trained in six
months, and casting a longing look at the then Boy Army of
Britain, he felt that every Indian youth must learn Drill,
Riding and Shooting. Long ago, in 1906 Savarkar observed
in one of his letters from London that a nation’s existence
depended upon its political independence. If the nation
enjoyed independence, it could make progress. That indepen-
dence in its turn depended upon the mental and military
training the nation imparted to its youths. That was why
after his release the first slogan he raised was, “ Down with
the Arms Act, Start Rifle Classes.” Thus it can be seen from
this that his militarization policy was consistent during both
the World Wars.

Savarkar was the only all-India leader, and the Hindu
Mahasabha was the only political party in India that launched
an intense propaganda for the militarization of the Hindus
and for the industrialization of the country with pure patriotic
and political objects during World War H. Liong before the

‘ Savarkar, Whirlwind Propaganda, pp. 146-68.

256 SAVABKAB AND HIS TIMES

outbreak of World War n Savarkar had seized every .
opportunity of bringing to the notice of the nation the woeful
want of the military strength of the Hindus whenever he
spoke in schools and colleges and even at literary conferences.

Savarkar stressed the need for Hindu militarization in his
speeches in Poona, Wardha, Chalisgaon, Delhi, Nagar, Lahore,
Hyderabad (Sind) , Sukkar and during the war years he sent
forth appeal upon appeal and gave an impetus to the move-
ment, explaining liis militarization policy at Meerut, Salem,
Changanaeheri, at Calcutta in the Ashutosh Hall and Scottish
College and at Sangli in the Willingdon College. In one of
his speeches he said : Today it may well appear that these
men in the armed forces are mere slaves in the pay of a foreign
Government ; but there can be no doubt that when tlie crucial
moment comes, they will prove themselves real patriots and
staunch Hindus.” While addressing the students of the
Scottish College, Calcutta, he said : “ Since the days of our
First War of Independence in 1857, it has been the policy of
the British Government to keep the army out of politics. Our
policy against this should be to carry politics into the army
by all possible means and once we succeed in this, the battle
of freedom will be won.” On another occasion he said :

“ Forces beyond their control have compelled the British
Government to trust you with arms and ammimition.
Formerly youths had to rot in cells for being in possession of
pistols, but today the Britishers are placing rifles, guns,
cannons, and machine-guns in your hands. Get fully trained
as soldiers and conunanders. Get thousands of mechanics
trained into technical experts in building .shipyards, aero-
planes, guns and ammunition factories. At another meeting
he said : “ Why not co-operate when you are gaining ? Did
you not flout the wily expectation of Lord Macaulay ? Then
why not welcome this unique opportunity for our own good ?
You know your enemies. I ask you to join the Army and
wield the guns and turn them to the cause of freedom. I tell
you this as plainly as I told the Viceroy himself about it. Do
not worry about the bonds and agreements. The reverse of
those scraps is blank. You can write new bonds and new
agreements on it when the time comes. Mind, Swaraj will never
come to you, although you cover the whole earth with paper

differences with the congress 257

resolutions. But if you pass resolutions with rifles on your
shoulders, you will attain it.”

Till the day of Savarkar^s whirlwind propaganda for Hindu
militarization, military career was the monopoly of the
Muslims, who formed the three-fourths of the Indian Army.
The realist in Savarkar sensed the danger of the Muslim
preponderance in the army in case of internal anarchy and
external pressure. With that md in view Savarkar preached
militarizati m sc that when ae proper time came for the
British to quit India, Free 1 li i could stand erect with its
national army. The editors of Lie so-called nationalist papers
that throve on military contracts and military advertisements
of the foreign Government whom they asked to quit, basely
enough decried the soldiers as hirelings ; their leaders
described the soldiers as “ rice soldiers,” their partymen
stigmatized them as mercenaries, and the meanest born
amongst them called Savarkar ' a recruit hero The worst
of it was that those very journalists throve on papers, whose
owners throve on Government contracts ; those very leaders
whose relatives and friends made skyhigh profits out of
military contracts ; those very persons who paid all sorts of
taxes and co-operated with the British Government in
conducting the railways and all other departments producing
war materials with selfish motives and for paltry things and
those followers of Gandhiji whose Gandhi Seva Sangh
supplied the military with blankets, were the persons who
ignobly attacked now and then Savarkar, who never asked his
countrymen to contribute a pie to the war fund and whose
propaganda for the Hindu militarization emanated from his
selfless, patriotic, and far-sighted policy and anxiety for the
welfare of India. What a paradox ! What a low level a slave
country’s reason descends to ! In its degraded conditions it
often curses the selfless as selfish.

Despite these curses, Savarkar vigorously carried on his
propaganda. What of Gandhi-brand jail-seekers, some of
Savai’kar’s flamboyant lieutenants, too, at first could make
neither head nor tail of his militarization policy, and were
sceptical about it. No wonder then that men who posed as
radicals and were outside Hindu Mahasabha looked askance

17

258 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

at this policy. When Savarkar thundered from the Presi-
dential Chair at the Annual Session of the Maharashtra
Marathi Literary Conference in Bombay in January 1938,
asking the delegates to abandon their pens in favour of guns
the wordy parrots of progress grew restless at the re-appear-
ance of Shivaji, who wanted to give them arms to turn them
to the cause of freedom. Savarkar shouted in his Presidential
Address to the Literary Conference : “ The absence of poetry^
and poets, novels and novelists would not be felt during the
coming decade. Austria and China suffered not because they
lacked good literature, but because they lacked military
power. Did you not hear, O learned men, and scholars, the
last pathetic shriek of the President of Austria ? He said,
‘ We yield under German bayonets’ and not under German
sonnets.”

Savarkar further said : ‘‘ If literature is a part of the
national life, its primary aim ought to be the .security of
national life. I absolutely admire the advocates of the
principle of “ Art for Art’s sake.” But when a theatre is
ablaze, it is the duty of the true worshipper of Art to rush
out to extinguish the gathering flames. What worth is litera-
ture, then, if a whole nation is writhing with pain under the
oppressor’s heel ? ” Savarkar went on : “ Did you forget the
fate of Nalanda and Takshashila, the seats of leaiming, and
other gi’eat libraries that were turned into smouldering
ruins ? ... It was the triumphant sword of Shivaji that made
Maharashtra safe for poets and philosophers.” He concluded
his famous Presidential Address at this Literary Conference :
“ I say, therefore, with all the emphasis at my command that
the crying need of our times is not men of letters, but soldiers.
It does not matter even if the whole decade is barren in respect
of literature. Let there not be a song sung, or a sonnet
composed. But let the streets resotmd with the thud of the
feet of thousands of soldiers marching with modern rifles on
their shoulders. A love song here, and a love story there,
may come in as a diversion. We know even Napoleon would
relax on occasions. Having brought his enemies to their
knees, Bajirao I also enjoyed the prattle of love. But it gives
me terrible pain to see my country reduced to the
Brahmavarta of Bajirao II. My heart breaks with anguish

DIFFEBENCES WITH THE CONGRESS 259

when I St ' the vapid emasculated young faces engrossed in
love prattles. So my message to you, literary men, is that
you should abandon your pens in favour of guns ; for
literature can never flourish in a slave country. It has been
well said that pursuit of science is possible only in a free
nation protected by the power of arms.”

Independently and in honourable co-operation with the
Government the Hindu Mahasabha workers and leaders gave
an impetus to the Hindu ^’’ilitarization movement through the
Hindu Mahasabha paper? they had at their command, from
the platform and through the Militarization Boards which they
had established independently of Government recruiting
machinery. The effect of this intense propaganda was seen
everywhere. The Muslim preponderance was effectively
checkmated and brought down and the percentage of the
Hindus in the army went as high up as seventy.

So powerful was the effect of this propaganda that
Sir Ziauddin Alimed, Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim
University, in a speech at Poona raised an alarm at the
increasing number of Hindus enlisting daily in the Land,
Navy and Air Forces thereby reducing the percentage of
Muslims in the fighting Forces. The Eastern Times, a
prominent Muslim League paper, too, raised an outcry against
the march stolen upon the Muslim monopoly and wrote :
“ The Hindu Mahasabha also has agitated strongly for
militarization of the Hindus as a great opportunity and with
the active co-operation of the Government, has met with
astonishing success.” ^

The Muslims and the British Government knew well what
Savarkar’s militarization movement stood for. It aimed at
carrying politics into the military ranks of the Indian Army,
and winning over the Army to the side of revolution for the
final overthrow of the British yoke. It was, indeed, the
military movement of Shahaji to facilitate the mission of his
son, Shivaji, for the attainment of Swaraj. Every British
statesman knew what Savarkar aimed at. Writing in Great
Britain and the East in January 1943, Sir Alfred Watson,
former editor of the Statesman, Calcutta, Sciid : “In his belief
of dictatorship, Nehru has a dangerous rival in Savarkar, who

^ Quoted by Bhide Guruji in From Quit India to Split India.

260 SAVARKAR AMD HIS TIMSS

does not hide his aspiration to rule under any veil of anony-
mity but publicly proclaims it as the leader of the Hindu
Sabha.” Sir Alfred proceeds : “ Savarkar claims domination
on the democratic basis of counting heads. For that domina-
tion he is prepared to fight and loudly demands that in
recruiting for armies in India, the present rulers shall elect
a majority of Hindus so that he may have an instrument to
enforce his will when the British rule is finally abandoned.
If it ever comes to a tussle between Nehru and Savarkar, as
seems inevitable, there is little doubt who will win.’’ Except
for the reference to dictatorship, Watson’s remarks are quite
pertinent.

It is well known that Deshgaurav Subhas Bose cherished
a loving admiration for Savarkar, and showed reverential
respect for him whenever he visited Savarkar, the Prince of
Indian revolutionaries. It is also an open secret now that
Subhas, the devotee of Shivaji and his politics, had discussed
the Indian political and international situation respecting
World War II with Savarkar some months before his dramatic
escape from India in January 1941. In the course of the
discussion Savarkar, the Indian Mazzini, inspired Subhas Bose,
the Indian Garibaldi, with the idea of an armed Revolution
from outside in order to intensify the struggle for Freedom.
The born general in Subhas took the cue, and played the role
of the Indian Garibaldi, rightly called the Netaji of the Indian
National Army, which was founded by Ras Behari Bose in
the Elast. A world-famous veteran revolutionary and a
man of great mental force and a powerful pen, Ras Behari
Bose, who was the guide and sole adviser of the Azad Hind
Government of Subhas Bose, was in correspondence with
Savarkar till the outbreak of World War II, was President of
the Japan Hindu Sabha, and had immensely contributed
through the Indian League of Independence to the forces of
the Indian Freedom Movement outside India. Netaji Subhas,
the I.N.A. and India owe a debt of deep gratitude to Ras
Behari Bose, the great figure of Indian Revolution.

The leader and the Founder of the I.N.A. both addressed
special messages to Savarkar over the Azad Hind Radio. On
one of such occasions Netaji Bose gave a broadcast on Jime
25, 1944, at night over the Singapore Radio and said : “ When

Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha Working Committee Members in
Bombay (1^40)

Savarkar and Cripps

At the time of the Cripps
Mission, the Mahasahha
delegation meets the Con-
gress delegation

DIFFERENCES WITH THE CONGRESS 261

due to misguided political whims and lack of vision almost all
the leaders of the Congress party are decrying all the soldiers
in the Indian Army as mercenaries, it is heartening to know
that Veer Savarkar is fearlessly exhorting the youths of India
to enlist in the Armed Forces. These enlisted youths them-
selves provide us with trained men from which we draw the
soldiers of our Indian National Army.”

Ras Behari Bose said in his Radio talk addressed to
Savarkar : “ In saluting you I have the joy of doing my duty
towards one of my elderly comrades-in-arms. In saluting
you, I am saluting the symbol of sacrifice itself.” Paying
homage to Savarkar’s unexampled sacrifice, untold sufferings
and matchless courage, he further said : “ I can see God’s
divine hand clearly behind your unconditional release. You
have once more proved your real greatness by propagating
the theme that our politics must never depend upon the
foreign politics of others. England’s enemy must be our
friend.” * Ras Behari concluded with Bande Mataram,
reiterating his belief that Savarkar’s leadership was the
greatest hope inside India. Is any further evidence necessary
to prove that the very I.N.A. movement, which Savarkar’s
opponents exploited, was the outcome of his ideology, politics
and his great book on ‘ 1857 ’, which provided the I.N.A. with
slogans, battle cries, and vision, and inspired them to fight the
battle of freedom ?

II

Savarkar’s main appeal to the Hindus was that they should
elect only those Hindus, who could act openly, publicly and
boldly as advocates of the Hindu Nation. The policy of the
Congress party in power and in politics was entirely and
grossly pro-Muslim. It encouraged the Muslims to be more
and more communal, fanatical and overbearing. The actions
of the Congress party were more anti-Hindu than their policy
on paper, and they trampled upon even the most legitimate
national claims and interests of the Hindus. One Congress
Ministry asked the Hindus not to play any music whatsoever
during the Moharam days. The Congress mutilated the Bande

^Ras Behari Bose’s message to Savarkar quoted in Indian Independ-
ence League’s Publication.

262 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Mataram cowardly. In their zest to plead that their natio-
nalism was above suspicion, they vued with one another to
prove to the Muslims that the Congressite Ministries had
always sacrificed Hindu interests, pandered to the Muslim
prejudices and loaded the latter with weightages, posts and
positions at the cost of the interests of the national majority.
But the more the Congress fawned, the more the Muslims
pretended to be oppressed and grew more fanatic.

Savarkar therefore unscathingly attacked this unjust and
unpatriotic, servile, senile and placating attitude on the part
of Congressmen. To Savarkar trampling the legitimate and
just rights of the national majority and favouring others with
undue weightages was perverse communalism, false and
destructive nationalism. Not that he was not for a fair
compromise with the Muslims on a true national basis. He
had appreciated the right step taken by Sir Sikandar Hyat
Khan, the Premier of the Punjab, in regard to the Shahid
Gunj affair and said that it was wise for them all to bury the
hatchet. Savarkar publicly appreciated the benevolent
gestures shown by the Shias in Lucknow regarding the
slaughter of cows and the playing of Music on public roads ;
and expressed the hope that if all non-Hindus would adopt
such an honourable, radical and accommodating formula of
unity, that kind of mutual co-operation would develop into a
common nationality, and common national State cemented
with patriotic ties.

But Savarkar never tolerated any unjust or unpatriotic
demand on the part of the minorities made overtly or covertly.
When the Azad Muslim Conference, held at Delhi in April
1940, opposed the proposal of the vivisection of India, but
resolved that the question of the nature and number of the
safeguards must be dictated by the minorities themselves,
Savarkar appreciated the first part, but denounced the latter
part of the resolution as a demand for the pound of flesh.
Savarkar believed that patriots fight for their Motherland they
love as patriots, and not as mercenaries demanding their
pound of flesh. When Sri Rajagopalachari came out with his
sporting offer promising the Muslim League Pakistan if they
joined the National Government, Savarkar replied indignantly
that it was curious to see that “ even the Congressite leaders

DIFFERENCES WITH THE CONGRESS 263

like Sri Rajaji should fail to perceive that the two terms
‘ Pakistan ’ and an ‘ Indian National Government ’ were in
themselves self-contradictory and self-destructive and how
typical it was of the Congress! te conception of ‘ National
Unity ’ that such eminent Congress leaders like Rajaji should
have given an open assurance to the Muslims regarding
Pakistan long before the British Government even dared to
do so. The ‘ sportive offers ’ of Sri Rajagopalachari were
becoming as much a pub] ; nuisance as the ‘ Inner Voices ’ of
Gandhiji were wont to be . '

Not less infuriated was Savarkar by an article of Gandhiji
in the Harijan dated the 13th October 1940, wherein Gandliiji
stated that in case the British power was overthrown as a
result of the war and an internal anarchy set in, “ the strongest
power in the land would hold sw’ay over all India and this may
be Hyderabad for aught I know. All other big and petty
chiefs will ultimately succumb to the strongest power of the
Nizam who will be the emperor of India.” Gandhiji also said
in the article : “ If you ask me in advance, I would face
anarchy to foreign orderly rule whether British or any other.
I would unhesitatingly plump for anarchy, say, the rule of the
Nizam supported by the chiefs becoming feudatory to him
or supported by the border Muslim tribes. In my estimation,
it will be cent per cent domestic. It will be Home Rule,
though far, far from self-rule or Swaraj.”

Savarkar replied ^ that Gandhiji knew as little of Indian
History as of Hebrew and stated that though the rule of an
Allauddin or an Aurangzeb was also a cent per cent domestic
rule, the Hindus detested it as veritable hell and added that
any rule of Muslims in future would be similarly hated and
overthrown by a new Shivaji, a Bajirao or a Ranjit. As for
the Nizam, Savarkar reminded him of the fate of King
Amanulla of Afghanistan. How anti-democratic and politically
false was the spirit of Gandhiji ’s article was well demonstrated
eight years later by his disciples, Nehru and Patel, who
attacked Hyderabad State and smashed the Nizam’s ambitious
role and his tyrannical un-domestic rule, vindicating the
correct stand taken by Savarkar in regard to the Hyderabad

1 Savarkar, Whirlwind Propaganda, pp. 239-58.

264 SAVARKAH AND HIS TIMES

State in 1939 when he challenged the Nizam’s misrule and
suzerainty.

in

Another point of difference with the Congress party was the
attitude of the latter to the Census. Savarkar believed then
that for at least ten years to come, all constitutional progress
and matters regarding public services, representation in
legislatures, etc. would necessarily be indexed or determined
by the figures and information registered in the Census of
1941. He, therefore, condemned the senseless policy of the
Congress party in boycotting the Census and said that the
Congress policy would hit the Hindus hard.

The numerical strength recorded in the Census of 1941 in
respect of the Hindus and Muslims was going to affect political
discussions in India as had the Census of 1931 affected the Act
of 1935. On the eve of the Census of 1941 Savarkai’ issued a
fervent public appeal to all Hindus including the Bhils
Santhals and all Animists to get themselves correctly
enumerated. Savarkar announced : “ Hindus, wake up ; the
hour of the Census strikes.” With a great hope and sense of
duty, he issued instructions to all District and Provincial
Hindu Sabhas to co-operate with the Census authorities, to
watch vigilantly the operation, approach the authorities
and secure an assurance from Government that Muslim
women’s number would be scrutinized by Christian and
Anglo-Indian lady Supervisors. In a special appeal, Savarkar
exhorted the Arya Samajists, Lingayats, Jains and Sikhs that
they might show their religion as Vaidic, Lingayat, Jain, Sikh,
but they should at least see that they were recorded as Arya
(Hindu) , Lingayat (Hindu), Jain (Hindu) , and Sikh (Hindu)
as their religions were of Indian origin, and as they regarded
India as their Fatherland and Holyland.

The Congressmen boycotted the Census as they did in 1921
and 1931 and the General Secretary of the Congress, Sri J. B.
Kripalani, isisued a statement on the eve of the Census of 1941
to the effect that the Congress refused to have anytliing to do
with the Census as it was a communal question. Savarkar
retorted that if it was so, how did the Congress beg for votes

DIFFERENCES WITH THE CONGRESS 265

at the doors of the communal electorates at the time of
elections ? Not only that, they even filled in their own castes
and religion in the nomination papers. Moreover, it was very
strange that these very Congressmen gave recognition to the
numerical strength of the Muslims while deciding the political
questions of India.

The Congress-minded Hindus respected the Congress
mandate and suffered terribly. No wonder then that the
Census, which showed T^-ndus to form .13 per cent in the
Punjab in 1881, showed tv. ir percentage In be 49. in 1921, 48 in
1931 and 47 in 1941 and simultaneously recorded a rise in the
population of the Muslims during ilie periods from 47 per
cent to 53 in the Punjab. In Assam, thirty years ago, the
Muslim percentage was 26 ; in 1931 it rose to 31 and in 1941
to 33.7 ; and Bengal, which had already suffered a great loss
in the numei-ical strength of the Hindus in the Census on the
previous two occasions and had reaped the fruits in the form
of the Communal Award, was at last declared in 1941 a
Muslim majority province. What the incorrect Census had
done to the Bengal Hindus was the result of the criminal
negligence of their top-most Hindu leaders, foremost news-
papers and illustrious personedities towards the solidarity and
correct recording of the Hindu population under the ruinous
influence of the Congress. The Modern Reinew in its issues
of June and November 1941 disclosed the mischief played by
the Bengal Muslim League Ministry in the Census affair,
avowing that the Muslims were not in a majority in Bengal
and that many Hindus especially the tribesmen numbering
about 14 per cent remained unenumerated.

Students of history and politics may note that these very
Congressmen who boycotted the Census of 1931 took the
figures of the Muslim population as correct while discussing
and determining the question of communal weightages, etc. in
1931. It was they who boycotted the Census of 1941 and yet
again conducted later on their negotiations with Jinnah and
the British Cabinet Mission for determining the issue of
Pakistan on the basis of these very census figures the
procedure and reliability of which was so doubtful !

266

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

IV

Two guiding principles inspired Savarkar through his
political career ; they were the Independence and the Indivisi-
bility of India. These were the articles of faith with Savarkar
and the Hindu Mahasabha. To Savarkar from the Indus to the
Seas, India was one and indivisible. In his Presidential
Address at the Hindu Mahasabha Session at Ahmedabad in
1937, he stated that the very words, Portuguese India and
French India sounded preposterous and insulting to us, and
declared that the Hindusthan of tomorrow must be one and
indivisible, not only a united, but a Unitarian nation from
Kaslimir to Rameshwar, from Sind to Assam. He believed
that the Independence of India was in sight ; but he sensed the
danger to the integrity of India from the vacillating, servile,
deceptive, and short-sighted lead and policy of the Congress
in respect of the Blank Cheque offers, the Communal Award,
the Simon Commission, the Census, the National Script, the
Lingua Franca and the National Anthem.

And as foretold by Savarkar the anti-national forces through
the Muslim League came out with a demand for dividing India
into sej>arate independent States, and the time for struggling
against and suppressing the forces of vivisection came. The
Muslim League, at its Lahore Session in 1940, declared “ that
the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority
as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of India should
be grouped to constitute ‘ Independent States in which the
constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign The
Congress which had till then capitulated to the Muslim League
in its communal demands was rightly apprehended by
Savarkar to grant the demand for Pakistan. He, therefore,
declared that a vote for the Congress was a vote for Pakistan
and sounded a warning to the whole nation in April 1940 :

“ A number of Congress leaders of eminence are very likely
to go a long way in acquiescing even in this notorious demand
of the Muslims to break up the unity and integrity of India
and the Indian State, if the Hindus do not repudiate in time
the claim of the Congress to speak on behalf of Hindudom as
a whole."

DIFFERENCES WITH THE CONGRESS 267

And when a year after, he told his audience at Lucknow
that there was a move for compromise on the question of
Pakistan among the Congress High Command, the purblind
Congress press discredited Savarkar for having suspected the
peerless patriotism of their holy fathers, and declaied with
all the force at their command that Savarkar assertion was
an untruth, although subsequently Congress politics literally
bore out Savarkar \s assertions !

Mr. Jinnah denounce ' the Hindu Mahasabha in his
Presidential Address at ? Madras Session of the Muslim
League in 1941 as an abs< Aitel 3 ^ incorj igible and hopeless
body, and threatened that if the British Government failed to
create an independent group of Pakistan States, others W'ould
come and do it. Savarkar accepted Mr. Jinnah’s remarks
about the Hindu Mahasabha as an unalloyed tribute to the
unalloyed patriotism of the Hindu Mahasabha, and asked the
Congress party to read with open eyes the widting on the
wall — the declaiation of Pakistan — and warned them not to
deceive themselves and to delude the masses by misreading
and misunderstanding the demands of the Muslim League.

In his reply to Mr. Jinnah Savarkar further retorted that
if the State of the Croats was an ideal and a prototype of his
Pakistan, he asked Mr. Jinnah to refer to history about the
fate of the Croats, the Serbs and the Slavs, who had been
victims of larger States. As for the threat from outside forces,
Savarkar replied that the Pan-Islamic alliance would be
resisted by a Hindu-Buddhistic alliance from Jammu to Japan
and he warned Mr. Jinnah : ‘‘ Then again, such parasite
growths of the Pakistan type are no new experience to
Hindudom. During the course of the last five thousand years
of its continuous growth and consolidation, this gigantic
Octopus of Hindudom has clutched and crushed Avithin the
formidable grip of its mighty arms and absorbed a number of
Shakasthans, Hunasthans, and the Marathas sw^allowed and
gulped down your verj^ Mogul Empire entirely before it knew
what was happening.” “The same fate,” asserted Savarkar
vehemently, “ shall these your petty parasites of your Pakistan
States meet after a miserable existence for a time, even if
they ever come into existence.” He then concluded his

268 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

historical reply to Mr. Jinnah, “History avers to the ever-
abiding truth that in India :

‘ Pakistans may come and Pakistans may go
But Hindusthan goes on for ever.’

Savarkar then put forth his historical formula for the
formation of a imited and powerful Indian State. He said :
“ There is, consequently, only one way for the Indian Moslems
to secure their safety, peace and prosperity as a community
in India ; and that is to get themselves incorporated whole-
heartedly and loyally into an Indian Nation which can only
be done on the following basic principles: —

(1) Independence of India and Indivisibility of India as
a Nation and State. (2) Representation strictly in
proportion to the population strength. (3) PubUc
Services to go by merit alone, and (4) the fundamental
rights of freedom of worship, language, script, etc.
guaranteed to all citizens alike.”

After putting forth the basic principles for an honourable
Hindu-Muslim unity and the formation of the Indian State,
Savarkar reiterated his famous historic formxUa, which was
the guiding .star of self-respecting and rising nation: —

“ On these terms and on these terms alone, if they come,
with them, if they do not without them ; but if they
oppose, in spite of them, the Hindus are determined to
continue the good fight for the freedom and integrity of
Hindusthan.” '

Savarkar, Whirlwind Propaganda, pp. 359-75.

CHAPTER XV

Roosevelt, Churchill and Cripps

I

Meantime, there was a move in tlie Liberal Circles to solve
the deadlock in their way. They held a Non-Party

Conference in March 1941 at the Taj Malial Hotel, Bombay.
The Convener of the Conference was the late Sir Tej Bahadur
Sapru. It may be noted here that a few days before this
Gandhiji had called on the ailing knight at his residence in
Allahabad. Sir Tej was also in coi'respondence with Gandhiji,
and Dr. Jayakar had seen Savarkar in the preceding month.
Intellectual and legal luminaries of India attended the
Conference. Prominent among those who attended the
Conference weie Sir Jagdish Prasad, Sir Nripendranath
Sirkar, Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, Loknayak Aney, Dr. Moonje,
Pandit Kunzru, Dr. Jayakar, Savarkar and Dr. Mookerjee.

The Conference was about to break up since some of the
leaders were nervous about the representative character
of the Conference. At such a crucial moment Sir Tej
requested Savarkar to speak on the point. Addressing the
Conference, Savarkar said that they had struck a note in the
political history of the country. They had proved that the
various parties in India could meet on the basis of a common
programme though they had allegiance to different ideologies.
As the President of the Hindu Mahasabha, he asserted his
belief in India’s right to absolute political independence ; but
although some of them in the Conference were not prepared
to go so far with him, he did not see why they should not
travel together so long as they had a common journey. Thus
by his calm and convincing arguments he gave a turn to the
Conference.

The Conference then set to work and demanded Provisional
National Government for India. At the conclusion of the
Conference Sir Tej expressed openly his gratitude to Savarkar
and acknowledged that Savarkar’s valuable guidance and

270 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMI^S

spirit saved the Conference from a fiasco. It was at this
Conference that the Liberal leaders were indelibly impressed
by Savarkar’s intellectual and persuasive powers and rational
and realistic approach to the political problems. Sri Srinivas
Sastri happened to meet Savarkar at this juncture. Later on,
while speaking at the twenty-third Session of the National
Liberal Federation held at Madras, Sastri referred to a meeting
with Savarkar at Bombay and said that the speaker was not
well acquainted with Mr. Savimkar and had met him only once
at one of those infructuous, pacificatory teas, organized
by Sir Chiinanlal Setalvad. On that occasion the speaker had
expected to see a gentleman perverse, obstinate and loud, but
found a thin looking, quiet Maharashtra chap, speaking slowly
and deliberately, seldom raising his voice and always
apparently in full possession of his mind and knowing exactly

what he wanted Sastri further said that he at once

conceived a great admiration for the man. Thus at one more
political rally Savarkar captivated the intellectual luminaries
and lofty brains of India by his reason, intellect and the
uncommon range and quality of his mental and argumentative
powers.

The reaction of Mr. Jinnah to this Non-Party Conference
was notable. From Bangalore he declared that the Conference
was engineered by the agents of the Congress and the Hindu
Mahasabha. Mr, L. S. Amery, the Secretary of State for
India, referred to the Bombay Non-Party Conference in his
speech in the House of Commons in April 1941, and said that
the Conference had not been able to secure any kind of
agreement on the scheme. Replying to the charges levelled
by Mr. Jinnah and Mr. Amery, in a statement Sir Tej stated
that in his political life he had never been trapped by anybody
and said : “ I was more than gratified that men like

Mr. Savarkar and Dr. Moonje, who were present at the
Conference, played the game and accepted the resolution.
They were men of strong party convictions and yet, for the
sake of settlement, they subordinated their party feelings to
the common goal we had in view.’' ’ Sapru soon saw the
Viceroy and was then “ thinking, according to the Nainital
correspondent of the Statesman, of a joint meeting of Gandhi ji,

^ The Mdhratta, dated 2-5-1941.

ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL AND CRIPPS 271

Mr. Savarkar and Mr. Jinnah or a small Conference including
these three leaders, convened by some persons of influence
outside the League and the Congress.’’ ‘

Then came the first breach in the stronghold of the Central
citadel of the British Bureaucracy. Lord Linlithgow, the
Viceroy of India, reshuffled his Executive Council on July 21,
1941, making appointments of seven Indians. Savarkar opined
that the change was a step in the right direction if it was to
pave the way for further and rapid development of constitu-
tional progress, and stated that the bitterness felt by patriotic
parties in India could not be dissipated unless Britain granted
India, if not full independence, at least equal partnership in
the Irido-British Commonwealth.

In the wake of these political changes, a second Session of
the Sapru Conference was again held at Poona on Jul^^ 26,
1941, wherein Savarkar got the United India resolution passed
by the Conference. At the morning sitting of the Session on
that day Sir Mirza Ismail was present, but he was conspicu-
ously absent when the United India resolution came up for
discussion in the evening. Savarkar, therefore, pertinently
inquired of Sir Tej the whereabouts of his trusted Ismail and
Sir Tej with a smile replied that it was true that Sir Mirza
Ismail had not turned up as promised. Was the absence of
a nationalist Muslim inexplicable at the time of such an
important resolution ?

It did not escape the alert eyes of Savarkar that the Viceroy
had not done justice to the claims of the Sikhs and the
Depressed Classes and therefore he wired to the Viceroy
urging him to nominate a Sikh leader on the Executive
Council. The non-inclusion of a Depressed Class repiesenla-
tive in the Executive Council was rightly resented by
Dr. Ambedkar. Savarkar immediately supported the strong
protest which Dr. Ambedkar had made in claiming a seat on
the Viceregal Executive Council and the Mahasabha President
said in his wire to the Viceroy that “ the British Government
could find no more capable a gentleman to fill that post than
Dr. Ambedkar himself.”

Savarkar believed that no nation had entered the
World War with any idealistic motives and U.S.A. would not

* The Mahrattay dated 9-5-1941.

272 SAVAEKAR AND HIS TIMES

translate her slogans of democracy into action by forcing a
democratic rule in India. To underline this truth Savarkar
sent a cable on August 20, 1941, to the American President,
Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to declare explicitly
whether the Atlantic Charter which was announced by
Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt on August 14, 1941, covered
the case of India or not and whether America guaranteed the
full political freedom of India within a year after the end of
the war. Savarkar further asked President Roosevelt : “ If
America fails to do that, India cannot but construe this decla-
ration as another stunt like the War aims of the last Anglo-
German War, meant only to camouflage the Imperialistic
aggressions of those who have empires against those who have
them not or are out to win them ! ”

This cable was broadcast throughout the world, especially
in Britain, America, Germany, India, and other belligerent
nations. Its implied assertion was fully exploited by Hitler’s
German propaganda to expose the hollowness of the allied
professions of love for democracy ! Mr. Churchill, the
War-time Prime Minister of Britain, was in the end compelled
to tear off with his own hand the mask of vague platitudes.
Mr. Churchill declared with his usual blunt candour that the
Atlantic Charter applied only to those countries which were
then under the Nazi yoke. Savarkar did not leave the matter
there. He again cabled to President Roosevelt on September
22, 1941, and asked the President of the great Republic
whether he dared contradict Mr. Chui’chill’s interpretation or
played a second fiddle to Churchill’s dictation by words or
silence. President Roosevelt in fact kept silence over
Savarkar’s pointed question. It was a straight hit that
exposed the altruistic motives of the Allies. This Savarkarian
trap for the American President was described by the Modem
Review as a statecraft.

A similar cable Savarkar had sent on April 23, 1939, to
President Roosevelt, who had sent forth an appeal to Herr
Hitler to wai’d off the impending colossal danger to the
civilization of humanity. In this cable Savarkar had appealed
to the American President : “ If your note to Hitler is actuated
by disinterested human anxiety for safeguarding freedom and
democracy from military aggression, pray ask Britain too to

ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL AND CRIPPS 273

withdraw the amied domination over Hindusthan and let
her have a free and self-determined Constitution. A great
nation like Hindusthan can surely claim at least as much
International Justice as small nations do.”

This cable underlined Savarkar’s conviction that so far as
war was concerned, India need not base her hopes on the
professed war aims of the Allies. The Germans flashed this
retort of Savarkar to the American President all over
Germany as they had broadcast throughout their nation
Savarkar s speeches on foreign politics. The frank exposition
of this truth was very much appreciated by many candid
American politicians one of whom Mr. M. M. Gross wrote to
Savarkar from the U.S.A. appreciating his cable to President
Roosevelt : “ Although there are many who believe as you
and I, very few have the courage to voice their feelings as you
did. Keep up the work, there will be an international day of
peace.” Another American of note promised co-operation in
publishing Savarkar’s viewpoint before the American people.

The popularity and influence of the Hindu Mahasabha was
rising and the Hindu Mahasabha was now a force to be
reckoned with. Noted politicians, authors and constitutional
experts from abroad now interviewed Savarkar at his house
at Shivaji Park, Bombay. Towards the end of 1941,
Mr. Hudson, the Reforms Commissioner, then officially
travelling in India to collect data for the future constitution
of India, had an interview with Savarkar. Prof. Reginald
Coupland of the Oxford University, who visited India for
studying the political constitution of India, met Savarkar along
with the Secretary to the Governor of Bombay on January 15,
1942. Mr. T. A. Raman, special correspondent of the North
American News Papers Alliance, saw Savarkar during the
same month. Mr. John H. Magruder, representative of the
New York Times, who was on active Naval service in Egypt,
had come to India to join the American Navy. He saw
Savarkar and discussed the Indian political situation with
him. Sir Evelyn Wrench, a representative of the Spectator,
London, who was on a political survey in India, interviewed
Savarkar to acquaint himself with the Mahasabha view on
the war situation and the Pakistan scheme.

At this jimcture there was a grave crisis in the war situation

18

274 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

for the Allies in the East as well as in the West. On February
11, 1942, Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek of China paid a
meteoric visit to India. He was the President of the Chinese
Republic and it was said he had come to discuss with the
Viceroy of India the war situation in the context of the
political situation in India and if possible to persuade the Indian
political forces to help the Allies unconditionally in the war.
Savarkar greeted the Chinese leader on behalf of the Hindu
Nation. In reply the Chinese leader and his wife thanked
Savarkar for the good wishes.

Singapore fell shortly afterwards to Japanese forces. Wiih
the fall of Singapore and the destruction of the British
warships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, it seemed that
Japan would smash the allied forces in the East. At this
psychological moment Savarkar issued a statement in which
he reiterated : “ Nothing now can rouse the Indian people
with a war-like spirit to fight to a finish, but a bold and
unambiguous proclamation on the part of the British Govern-
ment that India is guaranteed forthwith a co-partnership in
an Indo-British Commonwealth with other self-governing
constituents including Great Britain herself. Every functional
step to nationalise the Government in India and to materialise
this proclamation must also be immediately and actually
taken.” Savarkar also warned the British Government : “ If
Japan is allowed to forestall the British Government in this
case and to proclaim as soon as and if her invading forces
reach the borders of India that their immediate objective is
to free and guarantee the Independence of India, such a
Proclamation on their part cannot but capture the imagination
of the Indian people by storm and usher in incalculable
poUtical compUcations.” ^ This statement was not a veiled
threat. It was the outcome of the rare insight and poUtical
wisdom that was soon largely borne out by events.

II

Since 1940, the fissiparous tendencies in Indian poUtics had
begun to assume a threatening aspect. In the first week of
March 1942, Sri Rajagopalachari styled the MusUm demand

^ Statement dated 17-2-1942.

ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL AND CRIPPS 275

for vivisection of India into a brood of Pakistani States as a
‘ just and fair share in real power and stated that no Indian
politician was interested in denying this.’ Savarkar could
not let this outrageous assumption go unchallenged. He
condemned Rajaji’s statement and said ; “ Rajaji’s officiousness
is only equalled by his audacity in presuming that he was
entitled to play the role of a self-appointed spokesman of all
politicians in India and secondly that all Indians who did not
think the demands of the Moslem League ‘ fair and just ’ were
not politicians at all. The League demands that India should
be vivisected into a brood of Pakistans. Does that amount
only to a desire to have a ‘ fair and just ’ share in real power ? ”
Savarkar warned the British Government that such com-
promises made by Congressmen were not binding on the
Hindu Mahasabha.

On March 7, 1942, Savarkar cabled to the British Premier,
Mr. Churchill, urging him “ to make a proclamation of the
Indian Independence with co-partnership equal with Britain
in an Indo-British Commonwealth ” and demanded “ imme-
diate nationalisation of the Indian Government.” The Premier
of Britain acknowledged the cable through the Viceroy and
thanked Savarkar. About this time there was some talk of a
Congress-League pact in which Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan,
Prime Minister of the Punjab, figured prominently. Savarkar
warned Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan that “ any Congress-League
pact would not be binding on the Hindus. If it was detrimental
to the Hindu rights, it would be opposed by the Hindu
Mahasabha.”

By now the war situation was worsening for the Allies.
Threatened with a grave crisis in war created by the lightning
successes of Japan in March 1942, and with a view to
impressing the American people with the genuine sincerity
of British aims about India, the British Cabinet sent one of
their Ministers, Sir Stafford Cripps, to India on March 23,
1942, with a Cabinet proposal. The proposal was a mischievous
scheme for the Indian nationalists. The proposal envisaged
the creation of a new Indian Union which would constitute
a Dominion associated with the United Kingdom immediately
after the cessation of hostilities. Secondly the proposal
granted the right to any province in British India that was not

276 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

prepared to accept the new constitution framed by the
constitution-making body, to retain ite then constitutional
position, provision being made for its subsequent accession, if
it so desired.

Cripps interviewed important Indian leaders of public
opinion and discussed his scheme with them. Accompanied
by Dr. Moonje, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Sir Jwala-
prasad Srivastava and Lala Ganpat Rai, Savarkar had a
memorable interview with Cripps. Though the first part of
the Cripps Scheme was acceptable to Savarkar, he roundly
condemned in the interview the second part of the scheme
which virtually conceded Pakistan by granting the right of
secession to the provinces under the sweet name of
self-determination. During the course of the discussion
Cripps, the one-time Advocate-General of Britain, opined that
the right of self-determination was not new in politics and
was given to every unit in Canada before the formation of
her federation. To support his case Cripps also cited examples
from South Africa and other countries. Savarkar thereupon
turned those arguments upon Cripps himself by telling the
British Minister that the Canadian States were already quite
separate entities before they were called together to say
whether they liked to form themselves into an organic State,
Federal or otherwise. But here in India, continued Savarkar,
unlike the Canadian States, the provinces were already
welded into one Central unit and so there was no similarity
between the two cases. Savarkar further said to Cripps :

“ The question before us today is not to form out of separate
and independent States or constituents a new nation, or a
federation or a confederation. India is already a Unitarian
State.”

Cripps replied that India was never a Unitarian nation.
Thereupon Savarkar answered back : “ To the Hindus, it is
an article of faith that India, their Motherland and Holyland,
is a cultural and national unit undivided and indivisible. Let
alone the cultiural unity which you may not grasp during this
short period of the interview, but you wiU agree that
politically and administratively the British Government
admits it and calls the Government of India the Indian
Government, the Army and Navy are called the Indian Army

ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL AND CRIPPS 277

and Indian Navy, and Bombay and Bengal are called the
provinces. All these factors prove that India is an undivided
centralised nation and a State. And as for the principle of
self-determination, it is a right to be given to a nation as a
whole and not io a part thereof.”

Savaikar’s arguments were irrefutable. The effect was
powerful. Caught in his own trap for the first time while
conducting political negotiations with Indian leaders, Cripps
who set Russia against Cermany and enticed many Indian
leaders like Pandit Nehrif nm his snare, hung down his head
in silence. The suavity of his manners and sweetness of his
tongue faded ! In his silence he accepted a defeat at the
hands of Savarkar. The interview terminated and Savarkar
came out with his face flushed, and he remarked to the
pressmen : “ We shall fight out Pakistan to the last.” So
crushing and complete was the defeat inflicted on Sir Stafford
Cripps by Savarkar that this interview became a topic among
political circles at Delhi for many days. Even the National
Herald, Pandit Nehru’s mouthpiece, referred to this interview
in its comments on the proposed retirement of Savarkar from
the Presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha. The National
Herald remarked : ^ “ Profoundly as we disagree with

Savarkar’s politics, we freely admit that he is one of the few
men of our age who have made history and contributed to a
reawakening of oiir people. . . . He showed the old fire in him,
when he took up the thoughtless challenge thrown to the
Hindu Mahasabha by the Government of Bihar, and obtained
a resounding victory at Bhagalpur. With Sir Stafford Cripps
he crossed swords which the former will never forget.” And
indeed the voice of Savarkar will ring in the ears of Cripps
for many years to come.

Savarkar advised the Working Committee of the Hindu
Mahasabha to reject the Cabinet proposal in toto as it was to
be accepted or rejected in toto, and he left Delhi for Bombay
immediately. The Hindu Mahasabha was the first political
organisation that rejected the Cabinet proposal entirely.
Cripps wanted to have a talk with Savarkar a second time,
but Savarkar felt that it was futile to see him and discuss the
scheme while the secession clause stood there. Yet Savarkar

1 Quoted in The Mahratta, dated 28-8-1942.

278 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

was interviewed again at the Bombay Secretariat by H.E. the
Governor of Bombay when Savarkar expressed his view that
the Hindu Mahasabha would join the National Government if
the secession clause was not binding.

The Muslim League rejected the Cabinet proposal as the
freedom of separation was neither full nor clear. The Sikh
All-Party Conference rejected it protesting against the
principle of provincial self-determination. The Congress
party was willing to accept the scheme. Be it noted that in
spite of the secession clause which it swallowed, after
prolonged negotiations the Congress strained at the gnat of
the Defence Portfolio which was to remain in the hands of
the British representative during the operation of war, and
at last rejected the scheme. Thus it was Savarkar who first
opened the Pandora’s box brought by the wily, crafty and
subtle Cripps full of artificial laugh, while the new expression
self-determination had bewitched some men of Savarkar’s
camp, had accelerated the brainwave of the cool and
calculating Sapru-type Liberals, and had visibly affected the
spinal chord of the Indian National Congress. The Indian
leaders were so thoroughly captivated that they quoted Cripps
to silence their opponents !

It is worth mentioning here that eminent Liberal leaders
like Sri Srinivas Sastri, Sir V. N. Chandavarkar and veteran
statesmen like Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar and Sri Ramananda
Chatterjee had sensed the danger to the integrity of India
through the suicidal policy of the Congress. Ramananda
Chatterjee who presided over a public meeting at the
University Institute Hall, Calcutta, on August 22, 1941, said ;
“I am sure, if we are true sons and daughters of India, it
shall never be divided.” Speaking at a meeting at the
Blavatsky Lodge Hall, Bombay, on the next day of Savarkar’s
historic interview with Sir Stafford Cripps, Sri Srimvas Sastri
appealed to the coimtry to support the Hindu Mahasabha and
said : “ We all cherish the unity of India and we will all resist
any attempt to break up what we take so much pride in. . . .
Hindus whether they belong to the Congress, the Liberal
Federation, or any other organization will express their
sympathy with the Hindu Mahasabha. They should not only
rest content with mere sympathy, but also go to the extent

ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL AND CRIPPS 279

of extending their active political support to the Hindu
Mahasabha.” ^

This is a great tribute to the invincible stand taken by
Savarkar in regard to the integrity of India and this fervent
appeal made by Sastri to all the Hindus for supporting the
Hindu Mahasabha clearly meant that Sastri believed that the
integrity of India was safer in the hands of Savarkar than in
those of the Congress leaders.

And what did the Congress leaders do ?

Mesmerised by the false ideas of the principle of self-
determination and impelled by the craftiness of its President,
Maulana Azad, the Congress High Command thrust the
poisonous pill of Provinciial self-determination down the throat
of the Indian National Congress, the erstwhile protagonist of
India’s unity and indivisibility. The Working Committee of
the Indian National Congress proclaimed emphatically by a
resolution at Delhi in April 1942, “ that the Congress could
not think in terms of compelling the people of any territorial
unit to join the Indian Union against their declared and
established will.”

This historic resolution brought into bold relief the fact that
the Congress favoured the provinces with the right of self-
determination or secession and such secession was called by
the Muslims ‘ Pakistan ’. Dealing with the Congress resolution
four years after. Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya had to admit : “ It
is evident that the passage concedes the division of India into
more than one State and gives the go-by to the xmity and
integrity of India.” ^ Is any confession more sinful than this
of Pattabhi ? People of the Congress persuasion hoped that
Pandit Nehru would oppose the principle of provincial self-
determination. But self-determination was a new current of
thought in Indian politics and Nehru who was ever on his
wings to march with new ideas must fall in line with the
provincial self-determination ! It was the shape of things to
come and Nehru honestly fitted himself into it !

When this .historic resolution of the Congress was out,

^ Quoted in The Mahratta, dated 3-4-1942.

^Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, History of the Indian National Congress,
Vol. n. p. 635.

3 Ibid.

280 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Savarkar came out with a statement in which he said : “ For
the last three years or so I have been publicly warning the
Hindus that there was every likelihood that the Congress
would servilely surrender to the Moslems on the issue of
Pakistan even as it did on the issue of Communal Award
and would even have the crazy audacity of parading this
treacherous act itself as an acid test of Indian patriotism. The
Congressite Hindus continued to challenge and a large section
of the non-Congress Hindus also used to doubt the accuracy
of these assertions on my part. They wanted evidence to
prove my assertions. Now here comes the evidence with a
vengeance. Here is an authoritative declaration by the
Congress framed in a resolution which they have passed,
signed, sealed and delivered to the envoy of the British War
Cabinet that they admitted the right on the part of the Muslim
Provinces, nay, for the matter of that any provinces whatever,
to cut themselves off from Hindusthan and create Independent
States of Pakistans or any other Sthans they choose.” Telling
the people to note the dangerous admission on the part of the
Congress and its far-reaching treacherous implications, he
declared : “ The Congress which calls itself ‘ Indian National
Congress ’ has in these few lines stabbed at a stroke the unity
and integrity of the Indian Nation itself in the back.” ^

For a while there was a tug-of-war between the righteous
and unrighteous flanks of the Congress over the anti-national
resolution of the Congress. National honesty about the inte-
grity and indivisibility of Hindusthan seemed to move towards
the righteous side. In Allahabad at the Session of the All-India
Congress Committee on May 2, 1942, the erstwhile Hindu-
sabhaite, Babu Jagat Narayan, moved his Akhand Hindusthan
resolution, and it was passed with an overwhelming majority.
The A.I.C.C. declared : “ That any proposal to disintegrate
India by giving liberty to any component State or territorial
imit to secede from the Indian Union or Federation will be
highly detrimental to the best interests of the people of
different States and provinces and the country as a whole and
the Congress therefore cannot agree to any such proposal.”

Mkirk the pledged word to Mother India. Mark the holy
promise of national honesty and national integrity. But the

1 Statement, dated 21-4-1942.

ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL AND CRIPPS 281

Hindu defender of Pakistan in Rajaji would not let the
Akhand Hindusthan resolution go unchallenged. He resigned
the membership of the Congress Working Committee and
moved a counter resolution recognizing the right of separation
of certain areas from United India after ascertaining the
wishes of the people of such areas. But this Pakistan
resolution moved by Rajaji was thrown out on the same day
by the A.I.C.C. by 120 votes against 15.

Another factor to remembered about Babu Jagat
Narayan’s Akhand Hin lusthan resolution is that all the
so-called Nationalist Mu.s.ir. members of the A.I.C.C. opposed
it in the A.I.C.C. session, and declared this brave act of theirs
in a special statement. Yet the dishonest role of the self-
styled saviours of India persisted in its vainglorious platitudes,
high sounding words, knavery and hallucinations. When asked
by Dr. Abdul Latif of Hyderabad, Maulana Azad and Pandit
Nehru replied that the Delhi resolution conceding the right of
self-determination to the provinces was not affected by the
Akhand Hindusthan resolution ! ^ Had there been five honest,
fearless and determined leaders in the A.I.C.C., they could
have raised a voice of truth, a cry of righteousness against
this violation of the Akhand Hindusthan resolution. This
dubious role of the Congress was not a whit less equivocal
than the role played by it in regard to the Communal Award.
Indeed, History was thus repeated once more in a worse form !

Savarkar could not tolerate the sight of the poisonous
dagger of provincial secession aimed at the heart of
Hindusthan. He was perturbed at the tragedy that was being
enacted on the political platform of India. To Savarkar, unity
and integrity of his Motherland and Holyland was an article
of faith, a pious and precious sentiment. The Liberal leaders
like Sri Srinivas Sastri and Sir V. N. Chandavarkar and many
other straightforward men, who perceived the danger to the
National integrity, fuUy supported Savarkar and sounded
a note of caution to the country. It was clear nov^ that the
goal of the Congress was the independence of a Divided India
and the goal of the Hindu Mahasabha and Savarkar was the
independence of India and the integrity of India.

Savarkar was restless. He was striving to avert the tragedy.

1 Hindusthan Standard, dated 8-8-1942.

282 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

He even tried to focus world attention on the dreadful
tragedy that was being enacted in India. The outside world
expressed surprise at the Mahasabha opposition to the Cripps
proposal. Savarkar, therefore, cabled to the editor, New York
Times, to acquaint the outside world with the righteous stand
of the Hindu Mahasabha that “The Hindu Mahasabha
partially accepted the Cripps proposal and welcomed the
promised grant of equal co-partnership with Britain ; but the
scheme made it all conditional on granting freedom to
provinces to secede and break up India into a number of
independent States with no central Indian Government.”
Savarkar concluded : “ Americans in particulai*, who went to
w^ar even with their kith and kin on the question of secession
and saved the integrity of their union, cannot fail to appreciate
and uphold the Hindu opposition to the vivisection of India.
Hindus are prepared to guarantee legitimate safeguards to the
minorities, but can never tolerate their efforts to create a State
within a State as the League of Nations put it.” Savarkar
also warned Sir Stafford Cripps not to depend upon any
Congress-League pact as it would not be binding on the Hindu
Mahasabha.

CHAPTER XVI

Mahasabha Marches On

I

The Akhand Hindusllian movement was gradually gaining
ground. Savarkar’s voi. was capturing the imagination of
the people. Congress iri'u- nce with the ma.sses was at a
low ebb. Even in Englan-i and in America the people and
the Press evinced interest and eagerness to learn more
about the Hindu Mahasabha and its movement, its organiza-
tion and its leaders. The Hindu Mahasabha was defeating
Congress candidates in Municipal, Local and District Local
Board elections and bye-elections to the Legislatures. In 1941
the Congress suffered a significant defeat in Maharashtra when
Sri Jamnadas Mehta, supported by the Hindu Mahasabha,
defeated the Congress candidate in the election to the Central
Assembly. In Bengal where the opposition to the Mahasabha
came from the Forward Block, the Congress being then a
dwindling force there, Sri Ashutosh Lahiri, the General
Secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, defeated the Forward
Block candidate in the election to the Provincial Assembly.
Sri K. C. Neogy, supported by the Hindu Mahasabha, defeated
the Forward Block candidate, Sri Mujumdar, in Bengal in
the bye-election to the Central Assembly when a seat fell
vacant due to the disappearance of Subhas Bose in January
1942.

At Khamgaon, Patna, Monghyr, Katihar (Bihar) , Suri
(Bengal) , Poona, Mahad, Bhagalpur and Sholapur, there were
glowing and growing successes for the Hindu Mahasabha in
the elections ; so much so that at some of these places there
was complete debacle for the Congress candidates and
Congressmen withdrew their candidature or fought elections
in a personal capacity in order to save the prestige of the
Congress in case of their defeats. In Assam the Congress
could not even put up a candidate for a bye-election to the
Central Assembly and the Hindu Mahasabha candidate,

284 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

Sri Anang Mohan Dam, was returned unopposed to the
Central Assembly.

The Hindu Mahasabha observed the 10th of May 1942. as
an anti-Pakistan and independence day with intense
enthusiasm at the behest of President Savarkar. Hundreds
of meetings were held all over Hindusthan, in almost all
capital cities, Taluka and District towns, protesting against
the principle of provincial self-determination and Pakistan.
But strangely enough, while the Muslim Leaguers were
allowed along with Rajaji to propagate the cause of Paki.stan
all over India even through public meetings, the Hindu-
sabhaites denouncing the vivisection of India were arrested
and gaoled at many places including Nellore, Patna and Arrah
(Bihar) for holding anti-Pakistan meetings on that day.

History would record that Savarkar was the only great
leader who raised his mighty voice against the internal
disintegrating, disrupting forces as well as the external ones
threatening India. Not to speak of the Congress leaders, but
even Gandhiji assumed a dubious role blowing hot and cold in
the same breath. The virtual dictator of the Congress
flattered himself v/ith the belief that many pious Muslims had
remarked that he was a better Muslim than most Muslims.^
The symbol of truth and the apostle of Indian democracy
advised his countrymen : “ Let them (the Hindus) say to the
Mussalmans ‘ have as big a share of the spoils as you want :
we will be content to serve you - The man of justice,
equality and universal love further said : “ For as a Hindu, I
should know that I have nothing to lose even if the referee
gave the Muslims a majority of seats in every province.”®
On the one hand the messenger of God stated : “ Personally I
do not want anything which the Muslims oppose,” and on the
other hand the god-fearing man in him declared : “ I consider
the vivisection of India to be a sin.” * In one voice he said :

“ Muslim rule is equivalent to Indian Rule. I would any day
prefer Muslim Rule to British Rule ;” and in another he said :

“ For it (proposed Pakistan) means the undoing of centuries
of work done by numberless Hindus and Muslims to live

1 Mahatma Gandhi, To the Hindus and Muslims, p. 371.

2 Ibid., p. 303.

8 Ibid., p. 133.

* Ibid., p. 454.

. MAHASABHA MARCHES ON 285

together as one nation.” ^ He once believed : “ Partition
means a patent imtruth,” ^ and even did not falter to say :
“ Vivisect me before you vivisect India.” ®

Lastly, Gandhiji openly declared : “ Needless to say, the
Congress can never seek the assistance of the British forces to
resist the vivisection. It is the Muslims who will impose
their will by force, singly or with British assistance, on an
unresisting India. If I can carry the Congress with me, I
would not put the Muslira- to the trouble of using force. I
would be ruled by them, f< it would still be Indian Rule.”

Thus when Gandhiji was so uncertain about the unity and
integrity of India, his generals like the guileless, sincere and
enhghtened Dr. Rajendra Prasad naturally searched for the
economic safety and stability and political definition of
Pakistan instead of opposing the very idea of Pakistan !
Dr. Rajendra Prasad honestly and bookishly believed that
the riddle would be solved in a Round Table Conference by
the policy of give and take. For all his life, his party had
given up just claims and ground and taken nothing in return.
So why should his party not have such a compromise even
on this issue, he seemed to think !

Pandit Nehru declared earnestly that none would come in
the way of self-determination of the Muslims after
Independence. In his article specially written for the New
York Times Magazine dated the 19th of July 1942, Pandit
Nehru said ; “ There is now a demand on the part of some
Muslims for partition of India, and it must be remembered
that this demand is hardly four years old. Few take it
seriously.” ® If this is not an example of lack of realism, of
a deceptive self-complacency and of an inherent incapacity to
probe the depth of political problems, what else is it ?
Gandhiji influenced many men, but all his influence thus
sided with the Pakistanis in effect. It was such a formidable
opposition from the adversaries of the unity of India against
which Savarkar with his conviction and courage had to stand
up for the cause of Akhand Hindusthan. A man of supreme

^ Mahatma Gandhi, To the Hindus and Muslims, p. 415.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid., p. 438.

*lbid., p. 410.

3 Quoted by Beverley Nichols in Verdict on India, p. 187.

286 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

courage, superb insight and spotless sincerity alone always
irrevocably stands by a great ideal and Savarkar did it.

In the middle of May 1942, John Paton Davis, Second
Secretary of the Embassy of the U.S.A., also attached to
the General Commanding Army Forces, interviewed Savarkar.
He expressed his opinion to the President of the Hindu
Mahasabha that the American Press and the people were
realizing the rising influence of the Hindu Mahasabha ! In
the first week of June 1942, an American Negro leader saw
Savarkar, gave him an idea of the Ethiopean movement in
America, and narrated to Savarkar the disabilities the
Negroes were undergoing in the U.S.A. In the second week
of the month came the well-known journalist-author Louis
Fischer, to interview Savarkar. He talked to Savarkar as
if he had accepted a brief on behalf of the Muslim League
whose Fuehrer he had met the previous day. Without any
thought he asked Savarkar : “ Mr. Savai'kar, why don’t you
concede Pakistan ? ” Although the tone of the interviewer
was impulsive and the manner quite irritating, Savarkar
quietly asked Mr. Louis Fischer : “ Why don’t you grant
Negrostan in the U.S.A. ? ” The American journalist rashly
gave him an answer which Savarkar expected him to give, for
Mr. Fischer said, “ That will be anti-national ! ” “ Exactly,

Mr. Fischer, granting Pakistan will be anti-national and un-
democratic in India as would be the granting of Negrostan in
the U.S.A. ! ” answered back Savarkar.

Mr. Louis Fischer did not like the defeat in points of
arguments and persisted more vigorously than before : “ But
you must not forget Panipat, if you refuse Pakistan to the
Muslims ! ” Instantly Savarkar reminded Mr. Fischer of the
debacle in Dunkirk and Crete. The interview lost its charm
and Mr. Fischer had to listen to perturbed and fiery Savarkar
armed with irrefutable arguments for his stand. Mr. Fischer
was like a fish out of water and never in any future articles
did he mention the name of Savarkar. Savarkar’s truth was
unpalatable to his mind freshly acquainted with the soft pro-
Muslim attitude of the Congress leaders. The American
journalist did not know that he was crossing swords with the
greatest intellectual giant of Maharashtra. Where intellectual
giants like Sir Stafford Cripps and Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru

MAHASABHA MARCHES ON 287

were swept away, how could a journalist like Mr. Louis
Fischer hold his ground ?

In the same month, Mr. L. Brander, a representative of the
British Broadcasting Corporation, London, had an interview
with Savarkar, and gained a first-hand knowledge cind informa-
tion about the policy and principles of the Hindu Mahasabha.

In the month of May 1942, a Chinese Muslim Mission toured
India, visiting the chief Muslim majority cities. States and
Muslim strongholds, and interviewed the highlights of the
Pakistani Movement including the Nizam. The Chinese
Muslim Mission sent a message to the Nellore Muslims and
openly promised help to the Indian Muslims after the end of
the war. Savarkar reluctantly exposed the hidden motives
of the Chinese Muslim leaders who were wooing the Indian
Muslims and imbibing the virus of Pakistani Movement. He
also reminded the people of the recent visits of the Chinese
Muslims to Turkastan and Egypt to initiate themselves into
the Pan-Islamic mysteries and how they, on reaching India
had seen Jinnah and the Leaguers, and how they had aban-
doned their Chinese national dress and paraded the Fez.
Savarkar was of the opinion that if the motives of the Chinese
Muslims were not checked in time, they would develop in
China in the near future separatist tendencies, and would act
as a pair of scissors on China.

At this juncture in Sind the Hur menace developed into
a national calamity on the Hindu life, honour and property.
Savarkar therefore strongly urged the Governor of Sind to
stamp out the atrocious activities of the Hurs by any and
every means.

Although routed in the A.I.C.C. meeting at Allahabad,
Rajaji had now opened a Pakistan Front in the Madras
Presidency. Rajaji declared that he had voiced loudly what
the Congress High Conunand only whispered. No less a
responsible politician than Dr. Khan Sahib had also averred
that the Congress High Conunand had decided at Ramgarh
not to oppose any province or provinces forming a separate
independent State or States in India. Savarkar could not
tolerate this. He reaffirmed his belief that Rajaji “ was the
only means of the design of the Congress High Command who
were feeling the pulse of India and injecting the pro-Pakistani

288 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

virus into the body politic of India. They were playing a
double game. If Rajaji failed, it was his own failure. If he
succeeded, the success was theirs.” Savarkar then appealed
to the Madras Province to lose no time in counteracting the
nefarious movement of Rajaji by starting a counter propa-
ganda for the unity and integrity of Hindxisthan as a nation
and a State.

In 1942 Sir Mirza Ismail was appointed Prime Minister of
Jaipur. Savarkar had numerous complaints against his past
deeds as a premier in Mysore. He therefore said that even
if Sir Mirza Ismail was a highly efficient administrator, he
would oppose the appointment of Sir Mirza Ismail as the
latter during the Dewanship of Mysore had silently packed
the police, military and other important services with
Muslims. Savarkar reiterated his belief that to give more
to the Muslims than what was due to the Muslims on the basis
of merits or population was nothing but robbing the Hindus
of their legitimate, economic and political rights.

After the tragic failure of the Cripps Mission, the Viceroy
expanded his Executive Council partly with a desire to meet
the popular demand for Indianization of the Executive Council
by appointing distinguished politicians of administrative
experience and statesmen of proved ability and high calibre
like Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar, Sir J. P. Srivastava — a
member of the Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha,
— Sir Jogendra Singh and Dr. Ambedkar.

Savarkar appreciated this move of the Viceroy in spite of
some glaring defects inherent in it and declared that Govern-
ment must offer voluntarily so complete political freedom and
power to India as to render it impossible for any enemy of
Britain to offer anything more alluring to lead India astray !
Savarkar congratulated Dr. Ambedkar, Sir J. P. Srivastava,
Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar and Sir Jogendra Singh. Sir
Jogendra Singh said in his reply to Savarkar that he trusted
that he would continue to enjoy the confidence of the Hindu
community which, he added, was no less dear to him than his
own community. Sir C. P. Ramaswami, too, thanked Savarkar
for his congratulations which he specially appreciated.

mahasabha marches on

n

289

On a pressing request from the Hindu Sanghatanist workers
and organizations like the Hindu Sikh Nava Javan Sabha,
Arya Samaj, Mahaveer Dal, Sanatan Dharma Mandal, Savar-
kar visited Kashmir in the middle of July 1942. It was his
first visit to Kashmir. On his way to Shrinagar Savarkar was
accorded grand receptions and addresses of welcome on
various railway stations including Amritsar, Lahore, and
Vazirabad. In the Presidential party were Lala Ganpat Rai
of Delhi, the Sikh leader — Master Tara Singh, and Capt.
Keshavchandra.

At Jammu on July 11, 1942, a very enthusiastic welcome
was given to Savarkar by several institutions and organiza-
tions and nearly forty thousand Hindus and Sikhs participated
in the procession taken out in honour of Savarkar. Next day
Savarkar presided over the Hindu-Sikh Conference and
addressed a mammoth meeting. After going through a
crowded programme for three days in Jammu, he left for
Srinagar and reached the capital of Kashmir on July 14,
During his stay a host of deputationists, delegations and inter-
viewers waited upon him. He addressed tliree public meet-
ings one of which was arranged exclusively for ladies attended
by over twenty thousand ladies. He was presented with an
address of welcome by the ladies of the land of splendour,
sun and beauty. Next day he was taken out in another
procession in spite of his indifferent health to the banks of
the river Vitasta of Vedic and ancient fame. Experiencing
the great waves of emotion and enthusiasm of the people, the
spirit of Savarkar defied his frailty and he galvanized the vast
multitude with his message and mission. To thousands of
Hindus Savarkar has been an incarnation of God. At that
far end of Bhndusthan the Hindus evoked his blessings.
Thousands touched his feet with devotion and kissed his
hands in spite of his fervent disapproval of these things. Such
thrilling scenes of devotion and deification were a common
feature of all of Savarkar’s tours. And so was it in
Kashmir. Savarkar left the capital of the Indian Switzerland
despite public and private pressing requests to prolong his

19

290 SAVABKAE AMD UXS TIMES

stay. Restlessness and not rest is an outslai\d'mg eharactfi" f

of Savarkar.

On his way hack Savarkar made a brief ball alRuv aU-,^v
A big ret'epiion arranged there was abandoned but T

Sttm^ed H grand party given by Sjt Sitamn m hL honour.
ft (r'3c gl Rawalpindi that he told the press on the nth juiy

^ UWvrin^ under two fundamental error.s, viz.

u 4 t .verksting “'’y

vvouUl U.S ler^ d^.,„ancl for Indian Indt;pendence

allaying the Muslim hunger for pouer, Savarkar said,
Fakistan would put them into a wore effective position to
make further demands. He further declared that the Hindu

Mahasabha would never assent to seJJ its birthright, the
integrity of India as a nation and a State for the mess of
pottage of the united Indian demand for Quit India.

The Working Committee of the Congress at its Wardha
sitting by this time passed a resolution and agreed to the
stationing of alhed troops in India to ward off Japanese
aggression. The two opposite stands taken by the Congress
were inconsistent in Savarkar’s opinion, and therefore he said
that the Congress indulged in tomfoolery when it said to the
British Government : “ Quit India but keep your armies
here.” And indeed this meant reinstallation of the British

military rule over India in its much worse form.

On his return to Bombay from the Kashmir tour, Savarkar
issued a statement on July 27, replying to the president of
Jammu and Kashmir Conference, a pro-Pakistani Muslim
body which had presented him with compliments for his clear-
cut and well-defined views as contrasted with other nationalist
leaders. Since his democratic political convictions admitted
of no half measures or mental reservation, the memorandum
appealed to Savarkar to say whether he was prepared to
apply his popular principle of the majority rule to the problem
of Kashmir, and support the claim of the Muslim majority
rule in Kashmir ! The memorandum in fact was submitted
to him when he entered Kashmir and he had boldly and
fearlessly replied to the same in an open meeting. But for
clarification and assertion, he issued this statement on the
problem of Kashmir. Savarkar was not a slogan-ridden

MAHASABHA MARCHES OH

291

leader. He fearlessly, frankly and squarely answered that his
principle laid it down that all citizens who owed undivided
loyalty and allegiance to the Indian Nation and State would
be treated with perfect equality. They would, he declared,
share duties and obligations equally in common, irrespective
of caste, creed or religion ai representation would either be
on the basis <jf one man 1 1 e vote or in proportion to the
population strength in case ■ ' f eparate electorates, and public
services would go by merit

But those who contributed, Savarkar affirmed, to the
Pakistani creed or wished to secede from India had no right to
the democratic principle of representation in proportion to
the population. The Muslims of Kashmir had never publicly
or privately declared their consent to apply the same principle
of the majority rule to the States of Bhopal and Hyderabad.
Further, in Savarkar’s view although the Hindus were in a
minority in Kashmir, they were a part of the national majo-
rity from whom they were not cut off ! Thus the false
democrats in Kashmir were exposed by Savarkar. Of course,
in their slogans for the majority rule in Kashmir, they were
supported in no small measure by Pandit Nehru whose
attitude towards the Kashmir Maharajah and antipathy
towards the Hindus were proverbial !

On the last day of July 1942, Savarkar tendered his resigna-
tion of the Presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha. Owing
to the continuous strain for the last five years of the Presiden-
tial duties and the whirlwind propaganda, Savarkar badly
needed rest. He now thought it fit to shift the burden and
responsibility to some stronger and broader shoulders and
entrust the leadership of the Hindu Mahasabha to worthy
hands. Reviewing the work and prestige of the Hindu
Mahasabha in his statement declaring his resignation, he said,
“The Hindu has regained once more his national soul and
self-consciousness. Witness for example what Prof. Coupland
admits in his latest work. The Cripps Mission, published by
the Oxford University Press. ‘The Hindu Mahasabha has
come to be a militant organization of the Hindus and has been
growing fast in membership and influence.’ Sir Stafford
Cripps has himself written to me that so influential an organi-
zation as the Hindu Mahasabha cannot be left out on any

292 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

account when constitutional questions arise. But the most
eloquent compliment that can be desired is paid to the Hindu
Mflhasahha by Mr. Jinnah when he said at Madras in his
Presidential Addi-ess, ‘ The Hindu Mahasabha is an absolutely
incorrigible and hopeless body, and I can have nothing to do
with it Savarkar further asked the Hindus in his parting
message to ‘Hinduise all politics and militarize Hindudom.’
He also promised that he would ever continue as a soldier in
its rank and file and serve the Hindu Mahasabha in any
capacity it wanted him to do in furthering the cause of the
Hindus.

His resignation was a stunning news to the Hindu Sangha-
tanist public in India. Hundreds of letters and telegrams
soon poured in Savarkar Sadan urging Savarkar not to leave
them in the lurch. The Bengal Provincial Hindu Sabha in
its message said : “ Amidst the universal confusion and chaos
you have been the one beacon-light to Hindudom and so long
as you would be the President of the All-India Hindu Maha-
sabha, the whole of Hindusthan believed that the calamity
of Pakistan would never befall their Motherland.” Dr. Shyama
Prasad Mookerjee wired to Savarkar that his lead was essen-
tial in the prevailing national crisis. Meherchand Khanna
from the N.-W.F.P. stated that Savarkar’s guidance was
essential to India at that juncture. In a frantic appeal Sir J.
P. Srivastava said that Savarkeir’s resignation had come as a
great shock to the Hindu Sanghatanists all over India, and
would injure the Hindu cause. Rai Bahadur Harischandra
of Delhi wrote to Savarkar : “ It is entirely correct that but
for your energy, determination and constant hard work,
nobody would have cared or even cared to know about the
Hindu Mahasabha in this country and its condition would
have been as it had been more than a decade before you
resumed the control.” The late Raja Maheshwar Dayal from
U.P. said : “ You have always risked and sacrificed all even
at the cost of health. You cannot refuse to guide the nation
at this critical jimcture.” And it was a fact that only Savar-
kar could work the miracle. It is the man of strong will, says
Swami Vivekananda, that throws, as it were, a halo round
him and brings all other people to the same state of vibration
as he has in his own mind. When a powerful individual

MAHASABHA MARCHES ON 293

appears, adds Vivekananda, his personality infuses his thought
into us. This was true to a letter in respect of Savarkar.

Despite the fact that there were great patriots of long
service, great sacrifice and great learning like Devata Swamp
Bhai Parmananda, revolutionary leaders of great sacrifice
like Sri Ashutosh Lahiri, and representative Hindu leaders
of long service and statesmanship like Dr. Moonje in the
Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar alone could vibrate the entire
India soon after he entei od the Hindu Mahasabha. In a vast
country like India, to be a -cader in the true sense of the term
is a colossal feat of physical and mental capacity. This is given
only to a few. Even the Congress organization during the
span of sixty years of its life of service could hardly produce
magnetic personalities who could be counted on one’s fingers.
They were Surendranath, Gokhale, Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru
and Subhas. Gandhiji was all political organization, and Nehru
all political energy for the Congress. But Tilak and Savarkar
were born leaders. Their class was original. Such leaders
bring forth original thoughts. They make organizations great
unlike others who are made great by organizations which
they cling to. Subhas Bose was a born leader, but not a man
of original ideas. The role and responsibility which Gandhiji
and Nehru played and bore in the Congress, which arose over
the taints and toils of Dadabhai. Surendranath, Gokhale,
Tilak and Das, fell on Savarkar alone in the Hindu Mahasabha.
Savarkar had to begin on a clean slate. There was no other
electric personality like Pandit Nehm in the Hindu Maha-
sabha to strengthen the hands of Savarkar. Dr. Mookerjee
was once considered to be so by many, but he eventually
broke the backbone of the Hindu Mahasabha when he himself
withdrew his candidature at the time of the elections to the
Central Assembly in 1945, and ultimately even resigned the
membership of the Working Committee of the Hindu Maha-
sabha in 1948 !

Ill

The resignation of Savarkar from the Presidentship of the
Hindu Mahasabha was disastrous and shocking to the forces
of Akhand Hindusthan in view of the grave situation that

294 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

was developing in Indian politics. The Individual Civil Dis-
having failed to achiavn any practical

purpose or attract any attention, Gandhijl was obbged to call
it off. The Congress was fast approaching a critical situation.
Its virtual dictator, Gandhiji, prepared for a short, swift and
final struggle for India’s freedom. And the All -India Congress
Committee awaited marching orders for an open rebellion
called the Quit India Movement.

The Liberals deprecated the proposed Congress struggle as
inopportune. Dr. Ambedkar despaired of it, and Mr. Jinnah
construed it as a direct challenge to Islam ! According to
Savarkar, the declaration of “ Quit India bag and baggage ”
was attended with colossal absurdity. Gandhiji wished the
Britishers to quit India, but agreed to the stationing of their
army in India ! On the eve of the August Revolution the late
Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru declared that none had the right to
gamble with the lives and safety of 400 million people. Though
he was not a believer, he said, in any sepai'atist cry, he felt
the necessity of coming to a settlement with the minorities ;
that the British should declare that India would have the
fullest measure of self-government within a year after the
war ; that coalition Governments should be formed in the
provinces ; that Gandhiji, Jinnah, Savarkar and the leaders
of all parties should meet in a conference and come to a settle-
ment for the period of the war and set up a machinery for the
framing of a constitution for the future and that the Congress
should abandon the contemplated struggle.^ Lokanayak Aney,
then a Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council, appealed
to Gandhiji and the Congress to convene a conference of lead-
ing political parties in the country with a view to presenting
a united demand for freedom. Aney said in his speech at
the Tilak Mandir, a week before the outbreak of the August
Revolution : “ Tilak was a firm believer in the integrity and
indivisibility of India. This was amply shown by his attitude
towards the plan of partitioning Bengal.”^ But with all
this Aney’s subsequent attitude was quite inconsistent with
Tilak’s teachings. What must have been the magnitude of
the agonies caused to the departed soul of Tilak when his

1 The Mahratta, dated 7-8-1942.
lilbid.

MAHASABHA MARCHES ON 295

brilliant lieutenant, Aney, afterwards wished Jinnah and
Gandhiji success in the travail of Pakistan ! And what mental
torments Aney’s Guru and prophet must have undergone
when his worthy disciple congratulated Mr. Jinnah on his
becoming the first Governor-General of Pakistan carved out
of the vivisected and bleeding Motherland of Tilak !

Savarkar’s attitude to the Quit India movement was clear.
In his famous speech before the Shanivarwada, Poona, on
August 2, 1942, Savarkar complimented the Congress on its
having come round to the view of the Hindu Mahasabha that
communal unity was not a sine qua non for the winning of
freedom. He also declared that the Hindu Mahasabha would
join the Congress in the contemplated struggle provided that
the Congress solemnly guaranteed that it would irrevocably
stand by the unity and integrity of India, that the Congress
would not make any pact with the anti-national Muslim
League, and that the Congress would accept Hindi with the
Nagari Script as the Lingua Franca of India. Savarkar, how-
ever, put it tersely on the strength of the unquestionable proof
he had in his possession that the leader in Gandhiji had
always been vacillating and further said that it was his
considered opinion that Gandhiji would unquestionably agree
not only to one Pakistan in India but to many. Then ex-
pressing his unfailing belief in the militarization policy of the
Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar said that if Gandhiji pinned his
faith on his fast to secure his demands, it would not be heeded
at all by the British amidst the fire and booming of the war.
This historic speech of Savarkar was considered to be so
important that even the British Broadcasting Station broad-
cast it from London.

Although the terms laid down by Savarkar for co-operation
were reasonable, the Congress and its virtual dictator stub-
bornly refused to have anything to do with these conditions.
Instead, the A.I.C.C. in its fateful Bombay session on August
7, 1942, actually went on placating the Muslims more by
declaring that the residuary powers would be vested in the
Provincial Governments in addition to the right of self-
determination given to the Provinces to secede from the
Central State. The climax was reached when Gandhiji, the
de facto ruler of the Congress, in an authoritative letter to

296 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Mr. Jinnah, said in all sincerity : “ Congress will have no
objection to the British Government transferring all the
powers it today exercises, to the Muslim League on behalf of
the whole of India including the so-called Indian India. The
Congress will not only not obstruct any Government which the
Muslim League may form, but even join the Government.”

It is quite clear that in view of this anti-national attitude
of the Congress towards the national majority, Savarkar did
well in not identifying the Hindu Mahasabha with the so-
called all-out struggle of the Congress as its price and inevi-
table consequences would have been and were in fact after-
wards the vivisection of India ! Besides, Savarkar was of the
opinion that in respect of tactical questions, the timing, the
ways, the means, the methods of revolution and above all,
the effectiveness which could depend on sane calculations,
there was no elaborate planning in advance by the Congress
at all. The truth of this remark was realized by many
Congress leaders afterwards. Savarkar was not for mere
mass upheaval. The historian-leader wanted a pre-planned
revolution which would attempt to gain the support of the
military. For, no revolution ever succeeded without the
backing of the army. This reality was never visualized by
the Congress, nor did it even dream of it.

Gandhiji was to launch his all-out struggle for the over-
throw of the foreign domination after the A.I.C.C. approval
of his plan on the 8th August 1942. But all the Congress
leaders including Gandhiji were arrested the same night. As
a result of their arrest, popular discontent, mass disturbances
and their rigorous suppression by the British Government
threw the country into a turmoil. Post offices and railway
stations were damaged and destroyed by the Congress under-
grovmd workers. Telegraph, railway and telephone wires
were cut. Rails were removed and a few small bridges were
wrecked by youths actuated by patriotic motives.

Yet the marked feature of the struggle was that it was
predominantly Hindu and practically the whole of the Muslim
sections, Muslim localities, Muslim majority towns and cities,
the provinces of Assam, Orissa, the Punjab, N.-W.F.P., and
comparatively Sind remained aloof from this revolution.
Mr. Jinnah emphasised the Muslim aloofness from this

“■ But t’lis ‘ Quit India ’ must nol end in ‘ Split India
said Savarkar, addressing a mammoth meeting belore
the Shanivarwada, INama, on August z, 194^

mass meeting hearing Savarkar in pin-drop silence at Bombay

MAHASABHA MARCHES ON 297

movement when he declared in unmistakable terms that the
Muslims were opposed to the August revolution, and urged
the Muslims to keep away from it. He also warned the
August revolutionaries not to meddle with Muslim affairs
and provoke them into any counter-revolution.

Savarkar’s stand was both patriotic and practical. In a
statement issued on the 10th of August he said : “ The

inevitable has happened. The foremost and patriotic leaders
of the Congress including Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru
and hundreds of other leaders of the Congress party are
arrested and imprisoned. The personal sympathies of the
Hindu Sanghatanists go with them in their sufferings for a
patriotic cause.” He strongly condemned the drastic measures
adopted by the Government to quell the disturbances, and
warned the British Government that nothing but an imme-
diate proclamalion by the British Parliament granting India
the status of a completely free and equal partner in the Indo-
British Commonwealth with rights and duties equal with
those of Great Britain herself and its immediate realization
would solve the problem.” He openly sympathized with the
patriotic struggle of the Congress Hindus, and their sufferings
and the untold calamities from detention to death they faced
and underwent. But despite the malicious and mad propa-
ganda against Savarkar by the Congress press for his not
joining the revolutionary struggle, his foresight and judgment
could not drive him headlong and blindfold into the struggle,
the outcome of which, he conscientiously believed, would be
detrimental to the interests and integrity of India. Nay, it
was his firm conviction that under the lead of Gandhiji, the
Congress Quit India movement was bound to end in a split
India message. So he said he could not make a common cause
with the Congress on a wrong issue that would ultimately
lead to national dissolution and devastation, and he could not
adopt a line of action for the sake of a united front. He pointed
out that even the Congress and Gandhiji never made a united
front with the revolutionaries or with the Sanghatanists at
Hyderabad or at Bhagalpvu* although the issues then were of
national importance and interests. For Gandhiji and the
Congress in their own way believed sincerely that the line of

298 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

action adopted by the revolutionaries and the Hindu Sangha-
tanists was detrimental to the interests of the nation.

Savarkar now exhorted fervently the Hindu Sanghatanists
who happened to be Members of the Cabinet, Local bodies,
Legislatures, Councils, Government Committees, those serv-
ing in the Army, Air Force, Navy and those working in
ammunition factories not to be led away by emotion and
abandon their posts. He advised them to stick to their
various posts, and conserve their energies for the impending
real fight for the national integrity and interests. He warned
them that those very Congressmen would ultimately
endanger the national integrity of India, and their Quit India
movement would thus end in the vivisection of India.

After the outbreak of the August revolution, Savarkar’s
views were heard with more concern and interest throughout
the coimtry and in foreign lands as well. Although Savarkar
was not in favour of the line of thought behind the Congress
struggle, he was ever insistent on the demand for Indian
freedom. He sent a cable to the British press warning the
British public that the British bayonets might suppress the
violent outburst of popular discontent ; but “ bayonets can
never appease national discontent or remove its cause.” He
further stressed in his statement that India’s willing co-
operation could only be secured if the British Parliament
made an immediate declaration to the effect that “(1) India is
raised to the position of a free nation in the Indo-British
Commonwealth having equal status with that of Britain
herself, (2) during the war period this declaration should be
immediately implemented by Indianization of the Central
Executive Council whose decisions would be binding on the
Viceroy with the only exception of matters military and
strategical in connection with suppression of any internal
anarchy and defending India against external invasion, (3)
military forces should be fully Indianized as early as possible,
(4) Provincial Governors should also have Executive Coim-
cils similar to the Central, and (5) after the end of the war,
a conference should be immediately convened to frame a
national constitution for India so as to give full effect to the
declaration referred to above.”

This appeal issued by Savarkar to the British public, writes

MAHASABHA MARCHES ON 299

the London Correspondent of the Bombay Chronicle in his
despatch of August 26, 1942, was “prominently featured by
the leading newspapers like the Times, Manchester Guardian,
Daily Herald, News Chronicle, and the Yorkshire Post without
comment.” The correspondent proceeds : “ The appeal has
been the topic of discussion among a section of the political
leaders here and it is felt that an early initiative on the
part of the British Government on the lines suggested by
Mr. Savarkar is well worth making and with goodwill and
co-operation on both sides, a satisfactory way out of the
present Indian deadlock may yet be evolved.” The correspon-
dent concludes : “ Mr. Savarkar’s statement also came up for
informal discu.ssion among the Indian residents in London
who gathered last night in a public meeting of the Indian
League in the Central Hall.”

But Mr. Winston Churchill, the greatest imperiahst under
the sun, was not there to liquidate the British Empire. On
September 10, 1942, he assured the British Parliament in a
statement on India that there was nothing serious about the
Indian situation to cause them any worry and added that
there were more British forces in India than there had ever
been. Savarkar could not tolerate the British Premier’s boast
which he uttered in utter contempt for Indian national aspira-
tions. So Savarkar reminded Mr. Churchill of the fate of
Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty king of Babylon, who spoke in
a similar boastful tone, while standing on the precipice of his
mighty pride and power, and met his doom. Savarkar further
remarked that the future of India did not lie in the lap of
Mr. Churchill, but lay in the laps of war gods.

Though the British propaganda had duped Americans into
believing the hoax to a very great extent, it became quite
impossible for the British Government to misrepresent any
longer the deteriorated Indian political situation and the dead-
lock in foreign countries. At this juncture the Muslim
League resolved to send its deputation to foreign countries
to propagate the ideal of Pakistan. Savarkar therefore
resolved to coimteract the Muslim League propaganda in
foreign countries by sending a Hindu Mahasabha deputation
to America and other countries to acquaint those covmtries
with the political struggle and problem of India, and to foil the

300 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

false British propaganda and expose its hollowness which had
misled the world opinion into believing that the Cripps Mis-
sion had failed not so much owing to unwillingness of the
British to part with power as to internecine conflicts of the
Indian people.

The idea of sending the deputation was subsequently
dropped as neither the Muslim League members were, nor
Rajaji was allowed to go abroad. However, the Hindu Maha-
sabha leaders decided to set up a committee of the Hindu
Mahasabha to conduct negotiations with all important Indian
political parties and personalities on the three outstanding
national demands which the Hindu Mahasabha had framed.
The Committee consisted of Savarkar, the President,
Dr. Mookerjee, Dr. Moonje, Sri N. C. Chatterjee, Raja
Maheshwar Dayal, Rai Bahadur Meherchand Khanna and
Prof. V. G. Deshpande. Tlie national demands were as fol-
lows : (1) the immediate recognition of India by the British
Parliament as an independent nation, (2) national coalition
government with full powers during the war period excepting
the military portfolio, so far as the operative part was con-
cerned, (3) the holding of a constitution-framing Assembly as
soon as the war ceased. Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was
the prominent figure that moved with interest and vigour so
much so that the committee evoked a great wave of enthuiasm
all over India and representatives of the British, the
American, the Chinese press and also of other countries took
interest in the developments, and gave wide publicity in their
home countries to the move and efforts of the Hindu
Mahasabha.

The second All-India great organization, to quote Lord
Devonshire, the then Under-Secretary of State for India,
succeeded in securing an agreement on the national demands
and a united appeal signed with unanimity by the foremost
leaders of the Sikh brotherhood, the Presidents of the Momin
and the Azad Muslim Conferences and other prominent
Muslim organizations, the Presidents of the Christian Federa-
tion, the Nationalist League, the Liberal Federation and
the ministers of Provincial Governments of Sind, Bengal
and Orissa. The only party that did not sign the national
demands was the intransigent Muslim League. Savarkar

MAHASABHA MARCHES ON SOI

knew the Muslim League’s attitude, and had strictly warned
Dr. Mookeriee not to interview Mr. Jinnah unless the League
leader himself expressed his desire to meet him. Still in his
personal capacity, Dr. Mookerjee saw Mr. Jinnah who
surprised him by quoting offhand extracts from Savarkar’s
Presidential Addresses and twisting them to support his own
demand for Pakistan.

Savarkar forwarded the Memorandum containing these
united demands on the 9th of October 1942, to Mr. Churchill,
the Premier of Great Britain, urging the British Government
to transfer power in accordance with the united national
demands put forward by the Hindus, the Muslims and the
Christians ; the Congress demand being more or less on the
same lines. Mr. Churchill acknowledged through the Viceroy
the receipt of the appeal, and appreciated Savarkar’s efforts
in promoting unity among the several elements in Indian life,
but observed that they had not so far resulted in any specific
or constructive proposals enjoying the support of all the major
parties. Savarkar then exposed the British Government by
declaring that if the British Government could bestow the
curse of slavery on India in spite of India’s united will, why
did the British now bestow the blessings of freedom in spite
of her differences and dissensions ? He also asserted that the
British Imperialism and not India’s dissensions was the cause
of India’s misery !

The Hindu Mahasabha move for the united demand for
independence flashed into the headlines. It had a very power-
ful effect on the public opinion in India and in foreign lands
too. As a result of this, several press representatives and
public men, who came to study the Indian situation in general
from America, China and England, tried to know more closely
the Hindu Mahasabha ideology and policy. Even American
film-men got the Presidential office at Savarkar Sadan,
Bombay, and its routine work screened and the news reels
were exhibited in America.

But the most important outcome of the move for the united
demand for independence was that it proved beyond cavil or
criticism the falsity of the dishonest criticism of the opponents
of the Hindu Mahasabha that being a communal organization,
it could not give a lead to national policy. The Hindu

302 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Mahasabha was in fact ever for a reasonable compromise. The
Sind Hindu Sabha had honourably joined hands with the
Muslim League in running a coalition Ministry. Dr. Mookerjee
worked with Mr. Fazlul Huq successfully for a year or so in
the Bengal Cabinet for the benefit of all communities ; but he
resigned the post when the Governor made it impossible for
him to serve the people with self-respect. These steps suffi-
ciently demonstrated that the Hindu Mahasabha endeavoured
to capture the centres of power only in public interest and
not for the loaves and fishes of office.

But when their monopolized reserves were utilized by the
patriotic forces for the good of the people as best as they
could, the Congress press, circles and leading groups shed
crocodile tears and condemned Savarkar for being pro-
Pakistani, and beti-aying Hindu interests as if they themselves
had turned overnight Hindu-minded, caring for and guarding
Hindu interests more watchfully than Savarkar did. Savarkar
was amused with this accusation levelled by Congressmen
and, saying that their anxiety for Hindu interest was quite
laudable, he added ; “ The pity is that whether these very
gentlemen would have any face to welcome their leaders
when they would rush to the League-Headquarters after
their release, to sign the pact for the vivisection of India, and
sacrifice the Hindu interests with a vengeance on the altar of
the Congress fetish of pseudo-nationalism.” What a prophecy !
There never was a prophet so unfailing and so unrelenting in
his prophecies ! For all these gentlemen and journals did
verily support, some with brazen faces and some with sunken
heads, the anti-Hindu policy of the Congress leaders after
their release from jails.

CHAPTER XVII

The Writing on the Wall

In the meanwhile, attempts were made by leading pro-
Pakistani Hindus, who were outside the jails, to capture the
Hindu Mahasabha by r. /p d^ciat and make it accept the
Pakistan scheme at least ]vrinciple so that the Hindu Maha-
sabha could be a handmaid Lo the Congress in supporting the
latter’s anti-national surrender to the Pakistani forces. Sri K.
M. Munshi had even attended a meeting of the Working
Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha and Rajaji had almost
captivated Dr. Mookerjee and Raja Maheshwar Dayal. In
order to ward off that danger, expose and frustrate the
conspiracy, Savarkar resolved not only not to resign as already
announced by him, but also to contest the election to the
Presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha at the annual Session
of the Mahasabha in 1942. This was the only time when
Savarkar actually contested the election to the Presidentship
of the Hindu Mahasabha ; and backed by the wisdom and
overwhelming confidence of its electorates, Savarkar was
almost unanimously elected to the Presidentship. The annual
Session was held at Cawnpore in the last week of December
1942.

In the Presidential Address, Savarkar fully dealt with the
pros and cons of the self-determination issue, and, refuting the
arguments put forth in its support, resolved all doubts. He
said he stood for provincial re-distribution, but not for
provincial self-determination. The grant of self-determination,
he stated, to provinces to secede from the Central State would
blow up the Central State. Savarkar further observed that
the proposed Pakistan State would be militarily dangerous and
hence it would be suicidal to hand over the natural frontiers
to a hostile group. He warned that economically and
financially the Pakistan Muslims would not starve as the cold
and calculating pro-Pakistani Hindus guessed, but they would
pounce upon the neighbouring Hindu territories with fire and
fanaticism. Did not the fate of Kashmir prove this truth ?

304 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

Some of the pro-Pakistani Hindus whispered to Savarkar that
after the liquidation of the foreign power, Pakistan would be
browbeaten into submission, and, therefore, as a stroke of
statesmanship Pakistan should be granted. Savarkar replied
that even without a State the Muslims had grown into such
a threat ; then with a State they would be better organized
and prepared and the wishes of the pro-Pakistani Hindus
would thus prove to be the beggars’ horses ! Therefore he
asked the statesmen and politicians to draw a line and say ‘ thus
far and no further ’ at that very stage. Some, he said, foolishly
argued that the question of Pakistan was just like the Ulster
phase in Ireland. Replying to this argument, Savarkar said
that Ireland had never recognized the principle of pro\nncial
self-determination, and he declared : “ Hindusthan shall and
must remain an integral and powerful nation and a Central
State from the Indus to the Seas. Any movement to under-
mine her integrity, cohesion and unity would be treated as
treacherous and would be suppressed as any movement for
Negrostan would be punished in the U.S.A.”

An uncompromising and strongly worded resolution against
the Pakistan scheme was passed at the Session. The
frustration of the outsiders, who expected Mahasabha consent
to Pakistan, at this was so great that the Hyde in Gandhlji
bewailed through Rajaji : “ Even those few leaders of the

Hindu Mahasabha, who more or less sympathized with my
formula regarding the Hindu-Muslim Unity, feU a prey to
crowd psychology at Cawnpore.” Mahasabhaites wondered
who these leaders were who sympathized with Rajaji’s
Pakistani formula. But there was no answer. When asked
by some bold Poona youths about it. Dr. Mookerjee said that
Rajaji might have referred to Raja Maheshwar Dayal, and in
his turn the Raja said that it might be Dr. Mookerjee ! But
Rajaji had referred to “ leaders ” and not to a single leader !
Is the answer not clear ? Thus did Savarkar prove to be the
despair of the hybrid pro-Pakistani Hindus and a disappoint-
ment to statesmanly Hindu politicians, who were prepared to
accept the principle of provincial self-determination.

Besides the Hindu Mahasabha Session, December 1942
witnessed two other important events. In his speech before
the Federated Chambers of Conunerce at Calcutta, Lord

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 305

Linlithgow stressed the need for maintaining the geographical
unity of India. Sri Meherchanda Khanna represented the
Hindu Mahasabha opposition to the vivisection of India at the
Pan-Pacific Conference in Arr rica where he was sent as the
Indian representative by the wernment of India.

On February 1, 1943, Sava: .ar visited Shirdhon, the birth-
place of the Indian rebel lea ler, Wasudeo Balwant Phadke,
who rose in an armed revoh a 1879 in Maharashtra and who
breathed his last in the jail at .\den longing for the rise of a
great Indian Republic. It was an appealing, thrilling and
romantic sight to see the world-famous revolutionary leader
in Savarkar paying homage to his brilliant precursor.

Much water had flown under the bridges since then. The
Congressites had travelled from a path of jail-seeking to a
jail-breaking programme. The misplanned, ill-ordered August
Revolution almost came to an end after a few weeks of violent
disorders, mass lawlessness and mob violence. Sri Jai Prakash
Narayan, its brilliant leader of action, admitted in his secret
circular of January 1943, entitled “To ALL Fighters For
Freedom the failure of the Open Rebellion. Therein he
ascribed the failure to the absence of efficient organization of
the national revolutionary forces and the absence of further
programme before the people. And when it was too late,
Jai Prakash realized and remembered “ there was our work
in the Indian Army and in the services ! ” ^ After frustration
there came the revelation and realization for which Savarkar
had clamoured in 1942. Had the Congress leaders supported
militarization and enlistment of patriotic youths in the forces ?
Who was right, Savarkar or the Congress leaders ? Now
realizing the magnitude of the fiasco and failure of his move-
ment, Gandhiji began on February 10, 1943, his 21-day fast
which was nothing less than a tactical move to force his release
from the Aga Khan Palace.

The whole nation was rocked. In the Indian political sky
huge cries of ‘ Release Congress leaders ' arose. But the
British Government remained adamant on the issue of
Gandhiji’s release. The Non-Party leaders assembled on
February 19, 1943, to consider the situation which arose out

^ Government of India Publication, Congress Responsibility for the
Disturbances^ 1942-43, p. 74.

20

306 SAVARKAS AND HIS TIMES

of Gandhiji’s fast at the Aga Khan Palace, Poona. Savarkar’s
attitude to Gandhiji, who differed from him in political matters,
was charitable. He wired to Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, the
President of the Non-Party Conference, on the 20th February
“ to issue a national appeal to Gandhiji himself to break his
fast in the interest of the nation.” In the statement issued
on the same day Savarkar said : “ We must all turn our faces

from the alien and unsympathetic doors of the Viceregal Lodge
to the bedside of Gandhiji, and entreat him to break his fast
in the national interest to serve which he must have under-
taken it. . . . No appeals, resignations or resolutions addressed
to the Government can secure Gandhiji’s release. . . . This
national appeal should be communicated^ to him without the
loss of a single minute through any one of them who are
allowed to visit him. His life, Gandhiji himself may realize
by such a national appeal, is not so much his own as it is a
national asset, a national property.”

At Delhi, the Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha
passed a resolution regarding Gandhiji’s fast wishing prayer-
fully that Gandhiji’s spiritual strength would enable him to
survive the ordeal, but warned those concerned not to exploit
the fast for political ends for bringing about constitutional
changes and ending the deadlock without consulting the Hindu
Mahasabha which would resist any encroachment upon Hindu
rights or any scheme undermining India’s integrity. Savarkar
correctly sensed that if the fast was applied to resolving the
political deadlock, it would result in a threat to the integrity
of India. It was an historic reading of Gandhiji’s mind. And
a year later India was stunned when Hajaji came out with his
formula and declared that Gandhiji had fathered it actually
during this very fast at the Aga Khan Palace, a year before,
and had authorized him to approach Mr. Jinnah for a
compromise on that basis !

Now interested groups brought pressure on the members of
the Executive Council of the Viceroy for tendering their
resignations as a protest against the policy of Government in
keeping Gandhiji in internment. Savarkar was of the opinion
that the Members of the Executive Council should not resign
on this issue. Dr. Ambedkar and Sir J. P. Srivastava with-
stood many hysterical appeals. But what about Aney and

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 307

others ? Sri Aney, Sir Homi Modi, and Sri N. R. Sarkar,
resigned, but one of them surprised all with his worldly wisdom
full of carking anxieties for his political future ! And yet he
was the very politician who had in a responsive manner not
hesitated at all to concur with his colleagues in their decision
regarding the arrest of all the national leaders including
Gandhiji, six months earlier. It is indeed an uncommon art
to be able to butter both sides of one's bread ! This partial
evacuation of the Executi\^ Council created a faint smile on
the face of Gandhiji f astir. ’ ii. the Aga Khan Palace.

At this juncture the Muslim League was pushing the
Pakistan proposal ahead. Its Sind League Ministry passed
the Pakistan resolution inside the legislature. The Hindu
Ministers of the Mahasabha persuasion opposed the resolution.
It is worthy of note that Mr. Alla Bux, the nationahst Muslim
leader, who was murdered a few days after this event for his
— it was said — ^pro-Congress views, had no heart or guts even
to attend the Sind Assembly Session and oppose the Pakistan
resolution. Referring to this development, Savarkar warned
the country against the impending peril in these memorable
words : Now the features of Pakistan delineated on the wall

are so bold that even he who runs may read them. Only the
blind and cowardly can still indulge in believing that the
deadly serpent may yet prove to be a coil of rope." ^ Savarkar
also pointed out the difference between those members who
were of Mahasabha persuasion and those elected on the
Congress tickets in regard to their political stand. The former
opposed any anti-national scheme and proposals boldly and
bravely, while the latter kept culpable silence at the time of
solving any crucial and vital problem affecting the destiny
of the nation such as the one mentioned above. But the
short-sighted lead of the Congress, lacking as it was in
historical perspective, failed to read the writing on the wall.

During the same month the Leaders' Conference was held
in Bombay at the residence of Dr. Jayakar to explore the
possibilities of Gajndhiji's release. Prominent among those
who attended the Conference were K. M. Munshi, Rajaji,
Bhulabhai Desai, Alla Bux and Devidas Gandhi. It was
through the personal pressure of Dr. Jayakar and Sir Tej

^ Statement dated 10-3-1943.

308 SAVABKAH AND HIS TIMES

Bahadur Sapru, who told Savarkar that something must be
done to undo the injustice to the Hindu cause, that Savarkar
attended the Conference on March 9, 1943. When Savarkar
entered the residence of Dr. Jayakar, he saw leaders sitting
in groups and talking among themselves. He found that there
was no such question as Hindu interest or Hindu cause and the
burden of the talks and discussion was the release of Gandhiji.
When Jayakar and Sapru requested Savarkar to speak on the
point of Gandhiji’s release, Savarkar insisted that not only
the release of Gandhiji, but also the release of all political
leaders including Sri Sarat Bose should be demanded. He
further said that the British Government should be urged
either to release all those patriots or put them on trial.

Those were the days when the Liberals felt very uneasy to
approach the Viceroy. So they earnestly requested Savarkar
to approach the Viceroy with whom he really had great
influence, and press for the release of Gandhiji. Next day,
Savarkar could not attend the Conference owing to toothache
and a previous engagement with Mr. William Phillips,
President Roosevelt’s personal envoy, then travelling in India.
The interview covered a wide range of topics from the
political situation in India to the future relations between
India and the U.S.A. In the meanwhile, it was given out in
the press that Savarkar had signed the appeal for Gandhiji’s
release which Savarkar contradicted to the leaders’ great
disappointment by a statement declaring that he was not
present at the Conference on the 10th of March when the
appeal was drafted and signed by its signatories.

Just then Mr. Jinnah, who was expecting a letter from
Gandhiji in the Aga Khan Palace, thundered that terrible
consequences would follow if the Government meddled with
his post. Savarkar said that the threat of Mr. Jinnah was
more amusing than alarming, and wondered why the League
Fuehrer did not capture the Viceroy and proclaim Pakistan
at once !

By now, the Hiu* rebellion was ruthlessly suppressed by the
Government and its ring leader, Pir Pagaro, was hanged. The
Muslim League demanded that his property should constitute
a religious trust. Upon this Savarkar came out with a state-
ment on May 4, appealing to the Government to compensate

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 309

the Hindus for the losses they had suffered, from the proceeds
of Pir Pagaro’s property, which had been extorted in the main
from the Hindus whom the armed gangs of the Hurs had
looted and harassed.

There was a change in the Executive Council of the Viceroy.
The Viceroy appointed Dr. N. B. Khare Member of the
Executive Council in place of Aney. Savarkar appreciated
the nomination of Dr. Khare. Dr. Khare was a staunch
supporter of the militarization policy, a fearless patriot and a
politician of hard stuff, who cared more for his conscience than
for his career and who never changed his opinion for seciming
a post or for future success. And Dr. Khare proved his worth
when in the capacity of Commonwealth Relations Member he
patriotically and with his characteristic fearlessness attacked
the Segregation Bill proposed by the South African Govern-
ment. The Segregation Bill had engaged the attention of the
world and especially of the Indian leaders. Savarkar
condemned it as an “ anti-Indian, unjust and oppressive
measure,” and appealed to Britain and America “ to protest
against the most callous and insulting Bill, which cut at the
very root of the high-sounding aims of Britain and America
which stood for the vindication of freedom and equal treat-
ment for the depressed nationalities of the world.”

II

On the 28th of May 1943, Savarkar’s Diamond Jubilee was
celebrated all over India with great eclat and enthusiasm on
a magnificent scale. Savarkar’s birthday is an occasion for
national celebration and jubilation every year to the Hindu
Sanghatanists in Hindusthan. It was natural therefore that
on his happy and romantic sixty-first birthday, which dawned
after Savarkar had faced bullets, chains, cells, and years of
internment, the Hindus should display their nation-wide
rejoicings with special enthusiasm and added vigour. Opportu-
nists, careerists and arm-chair politicians do reach in the
natural course the day of their Diamond Jubilee ; but it is
a freak of fate, a fit of destiny, if a De Valera, a Mazzini, a
Garibaldi or a Savarkar reaches the day of his Diamond
Jubilee. India’s greatest patriot of his generation, Savarkar

310 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

was to rot in a cell of the Andamans till his seventy-severth
birthday and was to be released at the end of the year 19()],
if he survived !

Therefore on this unique day mass meetings were held in
the capital cities of all provinces and were addressed by
eminent and prominent personalities. Big functions were held
in the District and Taluka tovras ; various public, social,
literary and religious institutions passed resolutions in
appreciation of Savarkar’s great patriotic, literary and social
services. He was also presented with purses and public
addresses as a token of gratitude and in appreciation of his
great services in the cause of Freedom.

On the evening of May 28, 1943, before a mammoth
congregation at Poona, Savarkar was presented with a purse
of rupees one lakh and twenty-thousand by the Savarkar
Reception Committee, Poona, under the presidency of Sri N.
C. Kelkar. Savarkar was touched with the boundless love his
countrymen bore to him and the gratitude they showered on a
nation-wide scale on the day. He said amidst pin-drop silence
to the vast multitude : I am really overwhelmed with the

feelings of love and gratitude you have showered upon me
which I cannot adequately express in words. Some sentiments
are too delicate for words. It is a forgetful fit of destiny that
I am amongst you loday. Nobody could have predicted that
I could survive the two transportations the severity of which
on more than one occasion drove me to the thought of suicide !
We lived in our veritable grave. Through fire and water we
have stood by our noble resolve. And when I came out I
was not my personal self. I was but a shriek of the distressed
Hindutva.’’ Next day, the Poona Municipality gave him an
address of welcome. He told the meeting on the occasion that
life for a century was no fascination for him. Striving terribly
for the goal alone had given him the supreme joy of life. He
wished that soldiers fighting for national independence should
march over the bridges of the dead bodies of his colleagues
and his own, and win the goal.

At Poona, on the same day, great ones of Marathi literature
honoured Savarkar as a literary genius. The address
solemnly stated : “ It required Lord Krishna to say the Gita

to inspire Arjun with the spirit of fighting. The Gita has been

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 311

since then the guiding pole-star and the beacon-light to the
anxious world. Your place is among such authors of
immortal fame. Unflagging is the pursuit of your ideal and
conquering is your mission.”

A similar function was held in his honour in Bombay at
the Gowalia Tank Maidan on the 6th of June on a grand scale,
under the presidentship of Sir R. P. Paran 3 pe, a former
Principal of the Fergusson College from which Savarkar
graduated. Speaking on the occasion, Paranjpe appreciated
the great services of Savarkar to the country, marvelled at
Savarkar ’s unabated persistence in the national struggle and
at his mental and bodily vigour even after such a dreadful
incarceration and a long internment. The eminent Liberal
leader then asserted that Savarkar’s militarization policy was
dictated by sound political realism, and appreciated Savarkar’s
great work of Hindu consolidation and his valuable work for
the uplift of the Depressed Classes. Paranjpe blamed
Gandhiji for admixing religion with politics. He said that he
could understand Savarkar’s legitimate opposition to Gandhiji’s
policy of appeasement at all costs and reminded the country
of the fate of Chamberlain at the hands of Hitler.

Mr. K. F. Nariman, Sri Jamnadas Mehta and Sri Chandra-
gupta Vedalankar were the other principal speakers on the
occasion. Then a purse and a silver replica of the s.s. Morea,
from which Savarkar had escaped at Marseilles, were
presented to Savarkar on behalf of the public of Bombay. In
reply to the great honour done to him, Savarkar reiterated
his behef that nationalism itself was a step to a Human
Government, that the Hindus were the national majority of
Hindusthan, and that there should be an Indian State based
on the principal of ‘ one man one vote ’ in Hindusthan.

On behalf of the people of Berar Savarkar’s Diamond
Jubilee was celebrated on August 1, 1943, at Amraoti with
great eclat under the Presidentship of Sx’i Babarao Khaparde.
Savarkar was presented with a purse. In reply to the great
honour paid to him Savarkar explained how he was fulfilling
the mission of Tilak. Nagpur, too, celebrated the Diamond
Jubilee of Savarkar and presented a purse to Savarkar at a
grand function. Dr. Varadarajalu Naidu was the main
speaker on the occasion. Dr. Moonje presided over the

312 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

celebration. On this great occasion the Nagpur University
conferred upon Savarkar a Doctorate of Letters in appreciation
of Savarkar’s great literary powers. What a contrast to the
attitude of the Bombay University ! It not only failed to show
any gratitude for or recognition of Savarkar’s services to the
nation and literature by conferring any special Degree on him,
but also did not care to recognize and restore Savarkar’s B.A.
Degree so unjustly wrested from him when he was fighting
for Indian Independence. Oh ingratitude ! is thy name
political animosity of men in power in India ?

A purse on behalf of the public of Ahmedabad was at a
later stage presented to Savarkar at Ahmedabad on August
22, 1945. The purse had been subscribed on the occasion of
Savarkar’s Diamond Jubilee, but owing to the recurrent illness
of Savarkar the celebration had to be postponed.

Excepting Tilak no other leader was similarly honoured in
Maharashtra and the services of no Indian Leader except
Gandhiji upto that day were publicly appreciated on such a
nation-wide scale.

The main feature of the purses presented to Savarkar was
an unequivocal declaration by the organizers, promoters and
workers that they were offered unconditionally for his
personal use as a token of nation’s gratitude to Savarkar for
his untold sacrifices, unparalleled sufferings and unequalled
services to the country. Still some politicians like Dr. Pattabhi
Sitaramayya, who were not perturbed at the mismanagement
of the Tilak Swaraj Fund, grew critical about the utility of
Savarkar’s purse. And all this when Congressmen as a group
had boycotted the purse. If they were unconcerned with it,
why could they not purse up their aspersions within their
lips ?

In a special statement Savarkar acknowledged his debt to
the gratitude shown by the whole nation for patriotic work,
sufferings and sacrifice and said with a moving heart : “ Still,

even while I was moving on, loaded with garlands, through
the pressing and cheering crowds on my 61st birthday, I
continued to feel in a mood of aloofness that it was but a
romantic accident on the path of life and I must be prepared
to face a counter-transfer scene at any moment when all this

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 313

blossom, silver and gold might once again get transformed and
hardened into iron and steel and fiery ordeal.”

Ill

Savarkar’s insistence on constitutional means inside and
revolutionary methods outside the Indian nation, was revealed
once more on July 27, 1943, when Mr. Jinnah was attacked
hy a Muslim youth with a knife. He had a narrow escape
from the murderous attack. Though Jinnah belonged to the
rival political party, Savarkar came out with a statement and
condemned the act saying that “ such internecine, unprovoked
murderous assaults — even if the motive be political or fanatical
— constituted a stain on the public and civic life and should
be strongly condemned.” Savarkar’s candid regard for purity
of civic life was appreciated by Mr. Jinnah himself, who wrote
to Sri Bhide Guruji, Savarkar’s Secretary, thanking Savarkar
for his good wishes. That was the first and last occasion when
a letter passed between these two great leaders.

The Mahasabha having now firmly held to its anti-Pakistan
resolve, Savarkar resigned at the end of July 1943, the
Presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha for the third time.
This time, too, his resignation was not accepted, statesmen
like Dr. Moonje being unwilling to change the horse in
midstream.

But in spite of indifferent health, Savarkar’s vigilant eyes
were surveying the moves of the Pakistanis. A difficult
situation was arising in Assam. Long before, Savarkar had
warned the Assam Hindus of the impending danger. This time
also Savarkar invited the attention of the Hindus to the
imminent dangerous fate Assam would sufifer at the hands of
the homeless hungry hordes of Muslims from Bengal and
Orissa immigrating into Assam with a veiled plan of under-
mining the overwhelming majority of the Hindus in Assam
and turning it into a part of their proposed Pakistan. Hindu
leaders in the Congress party could not gauge the danger.
Though their leadership and nationalism depended for their
life upon the strength of the Hindus, yet they pooh-poohed the
calamity and ejaculated that it mattered not to them if there
was a Muslim majority or a Hindu one in Assam. Savarkar

314 SAVARKAH AND HIS TIMES

bewailed the lack of foresight on the part of the Congress
leaders, who failed to see that “ that very difference measures
the distance between Akhand Hindusthan and Pakistan. It is
the self-forgetting and suicidal mentality, which has smitten
the Hindu race like a national curse and has been responsible
in the main for the ills the Hindus are subjected to.”

At this period an event of historical importance took place.
In the month of June 1943, the League Ministry in Sind
banned Chapter XIV of the Satyartha Prakash, the
Bible of the Arya Samaj. None was affected more deeply than
Savarkar and he came forward to defend the religious liberty
of the Arya Samaj. In an appeal to the Viceroy he stated :

“ I emphatically draw your Excellency’s attention to the
contemplated action against the Satyartha Prakash by the
Sind Ministry. That book is the scripture of the Arya
Samajists and is revered by the Hindus in general. Every
scripture including the Bible has something to say against
other sects or religions. But no Hindu Ministry ever
contemplated any action against non-Hindu scriptures.”
Savarkar was the only great leader who strongly and boldly
protested against the unjust ban on the Satyartha Prakash.
And that is why the Arya Samaj leader, Sri Ghanashyam Das
Gupta, sought his guidance in the matter.

Neither the Congress press nor their leaders raised even
their little finger against this, for they feared as usual that
their Muslim brothers’ sentiments would be hurt. It was a
religious matter and that too concerning the Hindus ! The
Congress leaders were progressive men. And yet they were
intelligent and progressive enough to struggle for restoring the
Khilafat to Turkastan which she herself had banished ! And
this is not at all strange. Congressmen, who always walked
on the tips of their toes to search for a Muslim grievance and
to defend and appease it at the cost of Hindu interests and
could later on move an adjournment motion in the Central
Assembly over the execution of Pir Pagaro, did not feel an
iota of sympathy with the Hindus for the unjust ban on their
legitimate right of freedom of conscience. There was this
method in their Muslim mania. They kept neutral over any
problem affecting Hindu interests and their motto was either
to keep mum over Muslim demands or to support them. And

the writing on the wall 315

for this lack of sympathy and support on the part of the
Congressmen to the cause of the Arya Samaj, the Arya
Samajists themselves were in no small measure responsible.

A multitude of the followers of the Arya Samaj had changed
their holy faith for Gandhism for all practical purposes and
adopted Gandhiji as their godfather, who openly attributed
narrow-mindedness to their prophet.

Then came the famine that smote Bengal, taking an
unparalleled toll of human lives and reducing human beings
and houses to dust. The Muslims tried to utilize the appalling
situation for their worldly benefit. An organized Muslim
campaign to convert hundreds of starving Hindu women and
children to Islamic faith was reported to have been carried
on during this man-made famine — a famine set in by a dark
fanatic regime of the Muslim League Ministry. Savarkar
attacked these nefarious active proselytizing designs of the
Moslems. He shouted that the Muslims spent their funds on
Muslim famine-stricken population alone. While as usual
nationalist leaders like Devi Sarojini Naidu sent a cheque
earmarked for the Muslim sufferers, the Hindu funds and
trainloads of foodstuff were distributed amongst all the
sufferers in a cosmopolitan way. Savarkar said that the
Muslims were not only fed doubly, but they also used their
surplus for dragging Hindu children and women into their
fold. So Savarkar urged upon the Hindu leaders and
organizations to help, rescue, feed, clothe and shelter Hindu
sufferers alone, and warned them publicly : “ Let the Hindus

remember that suicide is no humanity. Humanity that allows
itself to be abused to encourage inhuman activities, is no virtue
but a crime.” Some sordid journalists of false cosmopolitan
view and hue honestly decried this realistic attitude of
Savarkar ; but slurred over the point whether the basis of
Savarkar’s advice was real or not.

About this time the official Vatican Organ, Observators
Romano, had declared : “ The Christian light shines already

in the subcontinent of India. We hope one day it will blaze
forth in full splendour.” Savarkar was amused at this
mistaken belief of the Pope and cabled a statement to the
United Press of America, Washington, retorting squarely :
“ Surely the Vatican could not have chosen more absurdly

316 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

ridiculous a moment to wish India to blaze forth with
Christianity than this one, when Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill
Roosevelt and the other leaders of almost all Christian
nations are vowing vengeance against each other and singing
hallelujahs to Moloch in churches meant for Christ and when
the Vatican, the capital of the High Priest of the Prince of
Peace itself which was only yesterday honouring Mussolini,
is today blazing forth in full splendour under the bombard-
ment from air and praying through the mouth of cannon to
save itself ! ” Savarkar hit the nail on the head when he
further said, “ Physician heal thyself,” and pointed out to the
Pope that “ his clock was behind time ; the Christian light had
come to shine dimmer ever since the Shuddhi and Sanghatan
movement had set in belying the hopes of Macaulay, who
wished India to pulsate with Christianity, with the result that
thousands of Hindus, who had embraced Christianity, were
now repudiating it and re-embracing the Hindu fold and
getting re-assimilated into the Hindu Nation not only
religiously but also culturally, politically and socially.” This
view of Savarkar was highly appreciated by the Jews in India
and particularly their spokesmen at Madras.

In November 1943, a memorable event in the social history
of Maharashtra took place. It was the centenary celebration
of the Marathi Stage. Savarkar was elected President and
he presided over the functions at Sangli in the first week of
November. It was a unique honour for a unique personality.
The stage and screen luminaries, playwrights and litterateurs
of Maharashtra did well in paying this unique honour to
Savarkar, their foremost man of letters, poet and dramatist.
Savarkar presided over several literary conferences and
fimctions but none so memorable !

During the same week the second millenary of Vikramaditya
the Great was celebrated at Sangli by the Maharashtra
Provincial Hindu Sabha. Savarkar addressed a memorable
mammoth pubhc meeting on the bank of the river Krishna at
Sangli and spoke on the great epoch-maker. He told the vast
multitude that Vikramaditya the Great lived for two thousand
years in the memory of his race, not because he was merely
a great king in whose peaceful reign, life and literature, art
and learning prospered, but because he defeated, demolished,

the whiting on the wall 317

and drove out the Shaks and the Huns, the alien and non-
Hindu invaders, and liberated the Bharat Varsha. The whole
of Hindusthan felt enthused, inspired and animated, said
Savarkar, at the mention of the name of Vikramaditya as the
Shakari and Hunari, the conqueror of the Shaks and the
Huns.

December came and Savarkar was again elected for the
seventh successive time President of the Hindu Mahasabha
Session to be held at Amritsar, despite his resignation pending
before the Working Commitli'o of the Hindu Mahasabha and
his repeated requests to the contrary. But owing to a severe
attack of bronchitis he was confined to bed and Dr. Mookerjee
officiated in his place.

The political deadlock was still unsolved. The British
Government was busy with the operations of the war, and was
not in a mood to discuss the deadlock. But efforts were made
by some Liberal leaders in that direction. Sir Maharaj Kumar
of Vijay Nagar expressed a desire to know the views of
Savarkar on the All-Party Conference to be convened shortly
thereafter to solve the deadlock. Savarkar replied to him
that there was no harm in trying again. Sir Jagdish Prasad
had an interview with Savarkar at Savarkar Sadan on
February 24, 1944, and discussed current political problems.
Early in the month, the Sub-Consul of the U.S.A. interviewed
Savarkar to ascertain Savarkar’s views on War and the Indian
political situation.

In February 1944, Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi died a glorious
death befitting an Aryan lady in the Aga Khan Palace at
Poona. Savarkar’s political differences with her husband
were quite well known. Yet the personal loss of Gandhiji had
his condolences and sympathies. In a telegraphic condolence
message to Gandhiji, Savarkar said : “ With a heavy heart I

mourn the death of Kastiu-ba. A faithful wife, and an
affectionate mother, she died a noble death in the service of
God and Man. Your grief is shared by a whole nation.” Such
noble feelings could come only from a heart devoid of any
spite against Gandhiji as a private man.

But the disciples of Gandhiji afterwards dragged the
deceased lady’s name into an appeal for a fund in her name.
It was not a fund which all part 3 nnen were to expend on a

318 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

national cause in its truest sense. Again the nationalism of
its trustees was likely to be the same for which the Tilak
Swaraj Fund was utilized. Savarkar could not tolerate this
politics in the good name of Kasturba especially as it was
feared that the Fund was likely to be used for anti-Hindu
purposes. So Savarkar asked the Hindu Sanghatanist public
not to contribute even a pie to the Kasturba Fund and to
supply the sinews for the propagandistic struggle of the
Congress to be used against the Hindu Mahasabha. He
reminded the Hindu Sanghatanists how the Tilak Swaraj Fund
was utilized to kill the spirit of the Tilakites, the policy of
Tilak and his party, and to aid the Khilafatists.

As for the idea of a memorial to the good patriotic lady, he
appreciated it, but asked Congressmen whether they had ever
cared for the thousand and one widows of the revolutionary
martyred heroes, who had pined away in miserable widow-
hood ! What Savarkar suggested to the people was that if at
all they wanted to erect any memorial to Kasturba, they should
also do so to the memory of the patriotic and pious souls like
Madame Cama, Gopikabai Phadke, Satyabhamabai Tilak —
who died while Tilak was at Mandalay — , Yashodabai
Savarkar, ladies from the Parmananda family and numerous,
other ladies who were as patriotic as Kasturba. Savarkar also
emphasized that the Kasturba Fund being a party Fund might
be used by Gandhiji at his sweet wiU for the propaganda of
his ideals which Savarkar believed to be detrimental to the
ultimate interests and the integrity of Hindusthan. The good
name of Kasturba which Savarkar honoured with due respect
had nothing to do with the political propaganda of Gandhiji.
The history of the Kasturba Fund afterwards was not in any
way encouraging from the point of Hindu interests and
the integrity of Hindusthan and Savarkar’s stand proved to
be quite correct. But the Congress press and some lackeys
with malicious pens indulged in anti-Savarkar outbursts
totally unjustified.

In March 1944, the Congressmen, who were freshly filtered
out of the jails after the abrupt failure of their Quit India
Movement, began to realize the frustration of their boycott
of the Central Assembly. They now attended the Assembly
and outvoted the Finance Bill in collaboration with the Muslim

the writing on the wall 319

League. Here was a combination of the August protagonists
and their August antagonists. The Muslim Leaguers wLo
were smarting under the Viceroy’s stress in his announcement
on the geographical, political, military and economic unity of
India, seized the opportunity of browbeating the Viceroy and
so they used the Congress Assembly members as a cat’s paw
to serve tbeir ends by throwing the Bill out. Savarkar’s
untaibng insigbt saw the danger in this event. So he endorsed
the view taken by the Mahasabha M.L.As in the Central
Assembly led by Sri Jamnadas Mebta who did not support
the League-Congress unholy alliance. The Congress party
and papers severely criticised this non-co-operation on the
part of the Assembly Members of the Hindu Mahasabha as
a pro-British attitude. The stand taken by Savarkar in regard
to this alliance was vindicated, as will be seen in the next
chapter, with a vengeance by the disclosure of the Bhulabhai-
Liaqat Ali Khan pact which was mooted by this alliance. The
Congress party hailed the pyrrhic victory won by the alliance
as a feather in their white caps. Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru
characterised the white-feathered victory with his failing sight
as the first rung of the ladder ; but he must have soon
discovered that the ladder was one that led to Pakistan.

Soon after this Gandhiji was released on May 6, 1944,
because of his bad health. Speaking of this event, Savarkar
said that this action on the part of the British Government
was a humane one. He also wished Gandhiji speedy recovery
and urged the Government to release Pandit Nehru and other
leaders as well. What a patriotic sympathy for the
compatriots ! Had an iota of this sympathy been felt by
Pandit Nehru and others for Savarkar, it would have added
lustre to their patriotic selflessness. But they never did it nor
did they show any inclination to do so even when Savarkar
lay in the hospital or was bed-ridden, not to speak of
Savarkar’s arrest at Gaya in 1941 when Nehru and his Civil
Liberties Union kept mum !

Shortly afterwards Savarkar had to issue a statement in
reply to a speech made by Mr. Jinnah at Sialkot. In his
speech at Sialkot, Jinnah referred to a statement of Savarkar
and told the Muslims that Savarkar and Moonje had
instructed the Punjab Hindus to join the Muslim League in

320 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

forming coalitions ‘ when it was inevitable to do so.’ So
Jinnah advised the Moslems to make it inevitable for the
Hindus to co-operate with the League in forming the ministry.
Upon this Savarkar replied that the report of his instructions
as quoted by Mr. Jinnah was meagre and misleading ; and if
Mr. Jinnah construed it as an instrument to bend the Hindus
to his wUl, then, he said, he should rest assured that the
Hindus would never bend to the dictates of the League.
Mr. Jinnah wanted in those days a Hindu leader to support
his demands and his wish was father to the thought. What
Savarkar in fact was driving at was that he was prepared to
discuss any sensible, honourable and workable proposal for
the Hindu-Muslim unity. One does not see in this any harm
to national interests and one wonders why Dr. Pattabhi
Sitaramayya should have twisted the statement of Savarkar
in his propagandist history of the Indian National Congress !
Savarkar had advised the Hindu leaders in the Muslim majo-
rity provinces to join ministries formed by the Muslim
League wdthout committing themselves to any scheme detri-
mental .to the interests and to the integrity of Hindusthan.
In criticizing this stand, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, in fact,
blamed Savarkar for having tried to apply a check to the
Leaguers who were running amuck in those provinces. Such
a move could not but be a wrong strategy in the eyes of
Gandhian politics in which Dr. Pattabhi had been steeped for
two decades !

In the second week of June 1944, Sri M. N. Roy paid a
visit to Savarkar Sadan with his wife, Mrs. Ellen Roy, as a
courtesy call. Savarkar was then unwell. Yet the talk
between the two leaders became very interesting when it
touched the Muslim problem in its rational and realistic
aspect. Two giants well known for their rationalism crossed
swords with each other, and the great theorist in Roy had
to face hard realities respecting the Muslim problem from all
points. During this month the Government of India appointed
Sir R. P. Paranjpe High Commissioner for Australia. He
was the first Indian to be the High Conunissioner for Australia.
Savarkar expressed satisfaction at this appointment.

In the meanwhile a crisis was coming to a head in the
Jaipur State. As foretold by Savarkar, Sir Mirza Ismail in

thjb writing on the wall 321

fact persisted in his pro-MusUm policy in Jaipur. He was
stated to have stifled Hindi and the Nagari script, supported
Urdu and demolished temples that came in the way of
his town-planning, but left mosques untouched. There was
a strong agilalion in the State against his holding the offlee
any longer, bandit ^amehandta Shatma, a Wdex m
State, res^orted to a last ‘\n YieWn, protesVmg against the anti-
Hindu rule of Sir Mirza Ismail. Savarkar upheld Pandit
Sharma’s demands and desired him to break his fast. After
fifty-four days Sharma broke his fast with no small amount
of success. For facts, figures and fairness had motivated his
fast and they exposed the real state of affairs in Jaipur.

In the third week of June 1944, Savarkar had again an
important interview with a personal representative of
President Roosevelt, Mr. Lampton Berry. During the two-
hour talk Mr. Lampton Berry discussed with Savarkar his
views and policy towards the future Indo- American relations !

Towards the end of June the Bombay Government put a
ban on the pilgrimage of the Hindus to Pandharpur and
Savarkar successfully directed an agitation of the Hindu
Sanghatanists for securing the religious freedom of the people.

21

CHAPTER XVIII

Fight for Akhand Hindusthan

I

Now we come to a very important chapter in the life of
Savarkar. By now Rajaji, the whilom member of the All-
India Congress Committee, released to the press his corres-
pondence with Mr. Jinnah concerning his offer to the League
leader which was fathered by Gandhiji during his fast at the
Aga Kh^n Palace. Rajaji had now advanced to the far end
of the proposed Pakistan scheme. Speaking on the birthday
anniversary of the Prophet at Bangalore on April 12, 1943,
Rajaji had said : “ I stand for Pakistan because I do not want
that State where we Hindus and Muslims are both not
honoured. Let Muslims have Pakistan. If we agree then our
country will be saved.’’ ^ Mr. Jinnah in his press interview
on July 30, 1944, referred to the correspondence with Rajaji
and the proposal put forward by him and said : “ As regards
the merits of the proposal, Mr. Gandhi is offering a shadow,
a husk, a maimed, mutilated and moth-eaten Pakistan and
thus trying to pass off as having met our Pakistan scheme and
Muslim demand.” In one of his telegrams sent to Mr. Jinnah
and now released to the press, Rajaji said : “ Mr. Gandhi,

though not vested with representative or special capacity in
this matter, definitely approved of my proposals and autho-
rized me to approach you on that basis. The weight of his
opinion would most probably secure Congress acceptance.” ^

Mark the secret promise of the truth-seeker, Gandhiji, who
abhorred secrecy in any matter. Read this further confession
of Rajaji in his statement of July 16, 1944, issued from
Panchgani in which he said : “ It is now two years since I
started work, even though I had secured Gandhi ji’s unquali-
fied support to the scheme and it conceded all that the Muslim

^ Dr. Pattabhi Silaramayya, History oj the Indian National Congress,
Vol. II, p. 507.

2 The Times of India, Bombay, dated 31-7-1944,

FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 323

League ’lad ever demanded in its resolution of 1940.” ^ Mark
the words ‘ two years Was Savarkar’s reading of the mind
of Gandhiji and his satellites incorrect, his foresight blurring
and the charges he levelled against them false ? Was Savarkar
wrong in his devastating attack on Rajaji’s role and Gandhiji’s
goal when they were actually hatching the secret move
against the integrity of India ?

Rajaji’s new offer contained the following terms : That the
Muslim League should endorse the Indian demand for Indian
Independence and co-opei iie with the Congress in the forma-
tion of a provisional Intc'in. Government and conceded that
if the Muslim majority pro^•Ihces in the West and East decide
by a plebiscite held on the basis of adult franchise in favour
of a sovereign independent State separate from Hindusthan,
the decision should be given effect to ; that in the event of
separation a mutual agreement should be entered into for safe-
guarding defence, commerce and communications and that
transfer of population should be voluntary. In the meanwhile
Gandhiji wrote a letter to Jinnah asking him for an interview.
Mr. Jinnah, who was well drilled, like the German war
machines, in conducting political negotiations, replied on
July 24, 1944, from Srinagar to Gandhiji’s letter dated the
17th July from Panchgani that he would be glad to receive
Gandhiji at his house in Bombay after his return. Mr. Jinnah
saw his life’s opportunity. When the scheme was out, there
was a flutter for a while among the Congress circles and
press ; but they were stunned to see that their holy father,
Gandhiji, himself was acting as the Godfather to the unholy
scheme of partitioning their Motherland and thereafter kept
a guilty silence on the treacherous move.

The Liberal leaders, Sir Chimanlal Setalvad and Sir V. N.
Chandavarkar, described Rajaji’s offer as a danger to India’s
security !

Savarkar who believed that India was a united whole
through ages and whose concept and worship of the Mother-
land were incomparable curtly stated ; “ It is really unjust to
look upon Rajaji alone as the villain of this tragedy. His
fault is that he allowed himself to play as a willing tool in the
hands of Gandhiji.” Savarkar flew into a rage at this beginning

* The Times of India, Bombay, dated 31-7-1944.

324 8AVARKAR AMD HIS TIMES

of the end of the United India. He added that “ the Indian
provinces were not the private properties of Gandhi ji and
Rajaji so that they could make a gift of them to anyone they
liked.” ^ Savarkar further declared that the Quit India Move-
ment of the Congress did ultimately end in the Split India
demand as foretold by him, issued an appeal to the Hindus in
general and Hindu Sanghatanists in particular to denounce
this nefarious proposal for Pakistan uncompromisingly and
fundamentally, and asked the people to observe the first week
of August 1944, as the Akhand Hindusthan and Anti-
Pakistan week.

The tussle between the forces of Akhand Hindusthan led
by Savarkar and the disruptive forces led by Jinnah and sup-
ported by Gandhiji and Rajaji aroused keen interest among
political observers abroad. The American papers sought
Savarkar’s views regarding Gandhi-Rajaji proposal. So
Savarkar cabled to the United Press of America, Washington,
that the Hindu Mahasabha, the All-India representative body
of the Hindus, condemned emphatically Gandhiji’s proposal to
vivisect India allowing the Muslims to form separate inde-
pendent States, and added that the Hindu Mahasabhedtes
would never tolerate the breaking up of the unity of India,
their Fatherland and Holyland.^ The same message was cabled
by Savarkar to Mr. L. S. Amery, the then Secretary of State
for India. The political situation was worsening. Meetings
supporting Rajaji’s proposal at many places ended in pande-
monium, huge demonstrations were held against his formula
and dissatisfaction against it was expressed on a country-wide
scale.

After a few days, as arranged between Gandhiji and Jinnah,
the Pakistani special train guarded by the Khaksar Muslim
Volunteers and protected by British soldiers who “ happened ”
to travel in the same train, left Wardha for Bombay with
Gandhiji inside. The nationalist opposition to him was
demonstrated all the way. At several stations, black flag
demonstrations were staged by Hindu Sanghatanists and other
nationalists. And lo ! On his arrival in Bombay, Gandhiji
and his commercialised press appealed to the cotmtry to
observe restraint and the people were asked to pray for the

^ Statement dated 14-7-1944. ^ Cablegram dated 26-7-1944.

FIGHT FOR AKHAHD HINDUSTHAN 325

success of the very talks which were dangerous to the unity
and integrity of India. Organs like the Times of India,
Bombay, that change their minds with the change of their
ma.sters, went a long way in welcoming the readiness on
Gandhiji’s part to concede the principle of Pakistan as ‘ a
constructive contribution towards the Congress-League settle-
ment ’ though the proposal was an avowedly destructive
contribution to the Indian nation and to the integrity of India.

Throughout this period Savarkar went on doing his duty
of cautioning the nation against the tragedy. In a statement
then issued he drew the at tn ion of the people to the sins and
grievous political errors Gandhiji and the Congress were
committing, and referred rather indignantly amid a bitter
atmosphere to the part Gandhiji was playing : “ The mono-
maniacal fit can hardly go further ; nor sin could be darker.
But the darkest sin of vivisection of our Motherland and Holy-
land is still going to crown his political career, and all this in
the name of non-violence, truth and God ! ” ^

Even with the strong opposition the nation demonstrated to
his formula, Rajaji was audacious enough to say that he found
almost all important sections of the Indian people ready to
support his Pakistani proposal except the Hindu Mahasabha
which was determined to offer uncompromising opposition.
He acknowledged publicly that the first spark of patriotism
was lit in him in his youthful days by reading Savarkar 's
famous book. The Indian War of Independence of 1857.
Rajaji further referred to Savarkar’s attitude to his formula
and said : “ Mr. Savarkar has stated that it is the duty of
every Hindu Sanghatanist to denounce the proposals.
Mr. Savarkar may thus define the duty of the Hindu Sangha-
tanists, but what about the duty of the Indian Sanghatanists
whose aim is to be free and not only to be organized against
the Muslims ? ” In his scathing and telling retort, Savarkar
said : “ This was a case of Rajaji against Rajaji.” He added
that Rajaji would bear witness to the undeniable truth that
he who ushered the word Independence in poHtical currency
for the first time in the recent history of India by proclaiming
absolute political Independence of India, rose in revolt and in-
vested the question of Indian Independence with international

1 Statement dated 13-8-1944.

326 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

importance, must be knowing at least something of what that
Independence, freedom, and Indian Sanghatan really im-
plied ! ” Savarkar proceeded in his master hit : “ I do not know
whether Rajaji’s acquaintance with Sanskrit is on a par with
that of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, the knight-errant, who is now
out to prove that the Arabianized and Persianized Urdu
Language and the Urdu script are better entitled to be the
national Language and national script of the Hindus than
Sanskritized Hindi. But Rajaji is after all born in an
Acharya family ; it would not be far from truth if I presume
that he must be knowing this much that the word Sanghatan
means pre-eminently consolidation, integi’ation, and unifica-
tion and can never mean disintegration, dislocation, vivisec-
tion or decentralisation.” He further asked Rajaji whether
the latter who supported the principle of vivisection of India
was an Indian Sanghatanist or those who opposed vivisection,
and disintegration were Indian Sanghatanists ? Who could
claim to be Indian Sanghatanists ? Tliose who led a butcher’s
knife at the neck of the Motherland or those who wanted to
ward off the murderous attack ? Never did Rajaji dare look at
Savarkar again through the press. So smashing was the hit —
a Savarkarian stroke, telling and crushing !

The talks of Gandhi ji with Jinnah in the palatial building
of Jinnah at Mount Pleasant Road, Bombay, lasted for about
three long weeks in September 1944. Jinnah was stubborn
but shrewd, ruthless but realist in his own way in his demand
for the vivisection of India. The underlining theme of
Gandhiji’s arguments was that the British Government should
be ousted first and then the right of self-determination would
be given to the Muslims. Jinnah insisted that the settlement
between the Hindus and Muslims should be first made.
Gandhiji clearly agreed to the principle of Partition as be-
tween brothers and promised that though he differed from
Jinnah on the general basis, he would recommend to the
Congress and the country the acceptance of the claim for
separation as contained in the Muslim League resolution of
Lahore of 1940. In a letter to Jinnah, Gandhiji said : “ If the
vote is in favour of separation, it shall be agreed that those
areas shall form a separate State as soon as possible after
India is free from foreign domination and can therefore be

FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 327

constituted into two Sovereign Independent States.” Lastly,
Gandhiji said : “ The League will however be free to remain
out of any direct action to which the Congress may resort and
in which the League may not be willing to participate.”

Thus the Muslim participation in the freedom struggle was
nowhere guaranteed ; but the partition of India was guaran-
teed by Gandhiji to Jinnah ! Gandhiji paid nineteen visits to
Jinnah’s house without receiving a single in return, even
observed his ‘ Mondays ’ on Sundays to facilitate the progress
of the talks and returned ith an unpleasant face from Mount
Pleasant. The master diplomat in Jinnah knew that now the
British Government was required to sign his perfidious plot
against the Indian integrity. Thus Gandhiji, who had
regarded Pakistan as a sin, a patent untruth, a denial of God,
and the undoing of the work of a good many ancestors agreed
to lay the axe at the root of Hindusthan and to cut off the
holiest part of India for the mere asking of the Muslims !

Savarkar’s heart was torn with anxiety ; his anguish was
unimaginable. A true son of India, he was grappling to save
the neck of his Motherland from the knife of the butchers,
fighting against the colossal betrayal by great leaders, against
the long purses of the multi-millionaires who sided with those
leaders and the great guilty press that saw the treachery
being enacted, but shed no tears, not to speak of offering any
opposition to it. Savarkar shouted : “ Hark countrymen, the
Indian National Congress, which was ushered into existence
to consolidate the Indian Nation, has itself betrayed its sole
mission, the very justification of its existence and falling a
victim to the pseudo-nationalistic malady, has dealt the un-
kindest cut of all at the Indian national integrity.” The
keeper turned verily a poacher ! As balanced a statesman as
Sri Srinivas Sastri said that it was impossible for a genuine
nationalist to remain tongue-tied while the integrity of our
Motherland was being bartered !

To all sensible politicians and the national-minded people in
general who publicly protested against the Pakistani proposal,
Savarkar fervently appealed in a statement to organize a
whirlwind protest against the sinful Congress designs to break
up the integrity of Hindusthan, and not to remain tongue-tied
without raising a single word of protest against the political

328 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

matricide of their Motherland. As a counter-move to the
Gandhi-Rajaji formula Savarkar contemplated to hold an
Akhand Hindusthan Leaders’ Conference on the 7 th and tUh
of October 1944. He invited all those leaders to the Conference
who had taken up a definite attitude to oppose any efforts
aimed at breaking up the integrity of Hindusthan as a Nation
and a State on any grounds whatsoever, whether religious,
cultural, linguistic or economic.

The Akhand Hindusthan Leaders ’ Conference was held
accordingly on the 7th and 8th of October 1944, at New Delhi as
scheduled. More than three hundred leaders including Master
Tara Singh from the Punjab attended the Conference. His
Holiness Sri Shankaracharya of Puri was also present and
blessed the Conference in a dignified Sanskrit speech. The
Hon. Sir Jogendra Singh, Member for Education, the Hon.
Dr. N. B. Khare, Commonwealth Relations Member of the
Government of India, were also present. Inaugurating the
Conference, Sri Jamnadas Mehta, denounced the concept of
Pakistan and asserted in his briUiant style : “ As a Hindu,

I reject it ; as an Indian, I repudiate it, and as an inter-
nationalist, I repel it.” Mehta further called for an
unrelenting war on the enemies of Hindusthan which he said,
were the British imperialism, Muslim fanaticism. Congress
wobblings and our own apathy. In his brief brilhant speech,
Savarkar explained the object of the Conference and dwelt
on its representative character. He hoped that there would
be no difference of opinion on the main resolution.

Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, a renowned authority on
Indian History and Politics, presided over the Conference,
and in his Presidential Address said : “ A crisis of the first
magnitude has been created in our national history by some
great leaders who have convinced themselves that it is impos-
sible for our Mother Country to attain her independence and
the status which is her birth-right except on the basis of
Hindu-Muslim Unity.” ^ He lamented the misreading of the
national history and politics on their part and asserted that
the Homeland of the Hindus through millenniums of their
history had been nothing short of the whole of India. The
man of vast erudition further said that Pakistan was a totally

* The Times of India, Bombay, dated 9-10-1944.

FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 329

unacceptable scheme as a solution of the communal problem,
as it sought to solve it at the cost of the unity of the Mother
Coimtry.

Master Tara Singh declared at the Conference that the
Sikhs were the gatekeepers of India. He said that he had
not come to lend support, but to seek support for the Sikh
determination to guard the Frontiers of Akhand Hindusthan,
and sounded a warning that even if the majority of the Hindus
agreed to Pakistan, they ’ '•d no right to force it upon the
Sikhs. Seveial other leaci* r? from Bengal, Assam, Madras,
Jaipur, Meerut, Barreillj a’ d Poona supported the main
resolution which unambiguously declared its unflinching
faith in the oneness and integrity of India and its firm con-
viction that the partition of India would be fatal to the best
interests of the country as a whole and to every community.

Among the three hundred sympathetic messages received,
those from Sri Srinivas Sastri, Sir R. P. Paranjpe and Sri
Ramrao Deshmukh exhorted the Hindus to value the interests
of the country more than those of a passing political party
and wished success for the Conference.

The Conference ended in a great enthusiasm and a deter-
mination of the nationalists to oppose Pakistan. This was the
greatest demonstration of the nationalist opposition to the
scheme of Pakistan during this period.

In August 1944, Dr. Mookerjee visited Poona. Savarkar
appreciated his “ recent condemnation of Provincial self-
determination ” and desired in a telegraphic message to L. B.
Bhopatkar that the crown of thorns of the Presidentship of
the Hindu Mahasabha should be bestowed upon Dr. Mookerjee
next year. In the second week of November 1944, Savarkar
once again announced his irrevocable decision not to accept
the Presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha any more. Dr.
Moonje, who could read the times with a clear foresight,
appealed personally to Savarkar in all sincerity to reconsider
his decision as he thought that there was no other force but
Savarkar that could avert the coming disaster ! But
Savarkar’s deteriorating health was now unequal to the
strain and task and he told Dr. Moonje that his decision was
irrevocable.

330 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

In the second week of November 1944, Savarkar appealed
to the Viceroy and to the Governor of Sind to lift the ban on
the Satyartha Prakash and added that the proscription of the
Satyartha Prakash was bound to result in a similar demand
for the ban on the Koran all over India. In this connection
he also saw the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, on November 27, 1944.
But the Congress remained still unconcerned in spite of the
suppression of the right of freedom of worship of the Arya
Samajists. Not only that, but the Congressmen remained
neutral when Bhai Parmananda moved an adjournment motion
over the Satyartha Prakash ban in the Central Assembly and
the motion failed for want of support !

Towards the end of the year the Hindu Mahasabha held
its annual Session at Bilaspur. Savarkar inaugurated this
session over which Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee presided.
In his brilliant and succinct address Dr. Mookerjee put
before the people Savarkarism in a modified form although
couched in the style of a brilliant university professor ! The
main features of the Session were the elucidation of the
economic policy of the Hindu Mahasabha and the adoption
of a draft of the Future Constitution of India prepared by
the Gokhale Committee and which was moved by Sri
L. B. Bhopatkar.

At Bilaspur Savarkar also presided over the Satyartha
Prakash Conference at the time of the Mahasabha Session and
expressed his righteous indignation by declaring that had
there been Hindu Sanghatanist ministries in all other pro-
vinces, the Koran would have been instantly banned till the
Satyartha Prakash was fully restored in Sind.

n

The year 1945 was a turning point in Savarkar’s life in
many respects. Owing to a serious breakdown in his
health, his constitution that stood the hardships of the
Deathland, the strain of the social work in Ratnagiri and
since 1937 the whirlwind propaganda from one end of
Hindusthan to the other, was now refusing to stand the strain
of active political life any more.

In the month of March 1945, Savarkar suffered a great

FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAN 331

bereavement. His elder brother Ganeshpant alias Babarao
Savarkar passed away at Sangli after a prolonged and painful
illness. Savarkar’s lifelong trusted elderly counsel, com-
patriot and heroic brother thus passed away. No brothers in
modern politics stood by their brother through thick and thin
as did Babarao Savarkar and Dr. N. D. Savarkar loyally stand
through fire and water by their beloved brother, Tatya. India’s
pioneer devotee of revolution, Babarao Savarkar was a patriot
of heroic enduring, endless sacrifice and silent selfless service.
The younger brother. Dr. Narayanrao Savarkar, attended the
sickbed of Babarao at Sangli. Savarkar had seen the ailing
brother a few days before the latter’s death. His distant stay
made him write in his anxious moments letters to his brother
who was on his death-bed. Savarkar wrote to his dying
brother : “ Our life work (i.e. the work of the three brothers)
was one. In our generation we have tried to repay our
spiritual debt to our forefathers. No historian of modern
Hindusthan will fail to write in golden letters one separate
chapter. Our political opponents have familiarized the title
of that chapter as the Savarkar Epoch. By giving the
countrymen two battle cries, “ Victory to the Goddess of
Liberty ” and “ Hindusthan belongs to the Hindus,” we have
thus been instrumental twice in bringing about a fundamental
revolution in the nation’s ideology and active political life.”

“ The Lord of Death, who is now standing by your side, is
meeting you, not like a foe, but like a friend. You have lived
up to your life’s ideal. Never did even once you dream of
abandoning the torch of freedom which in your boyhood you
vowed to hold aloft. Great were your sufferings. Equally
great have been your joys. You have bravely suffered the
hardships of a political prisoner condenmed to a life sentence
in the Andamans. In sufferings as in happiness, never did
you drop down the banner of Revolution.”

The heroic fighter died thinking only of his country’s wel-
fare. An anxious enquiry on his lips an hour or two before
his last breath was about the Communist threat to Nepal !
For, Nepal was his beloved Hindu Kingdom from his boy-
hood. Gandhi wrote a letter offering his condolences to
Savarkar addressed to his Ratnagiri residence which Savarkar
had left eight years ago. Gandhiji could send immediate

332 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

condolence by a telegram to His Exalted Highness the Nizam
of Hyderabad on his mother’s death, but he wrote a letter to
Savarkar and that too to a wrong address. Can this wrong
address on the letter be a mere slip of memory committed
by the unfailing mind of Gandhiji ? Leaders, statesmen and
newspapers from America, England, France, Germany and
Japan knew that the residence of Savarkar was at Bombay.
Be that as it may, Savarkar, however, thanked Shriman
Gandhiji sincerely in fluent Hindi, ending his letter with an
inquiry about the health of Gandhiji. What a geniality of a
wronged soul !

The first quarter of the year 1945 witnessed a historic
event. It was at this juncture that the late Bhulabhai Desai,
the leader of the Congress party in the Central Assembly,
who had seen the Viceroy, Gandhiji and Liaqat Ali during
the early part of the year, made a secret pact with Mr. Liaqat
Ali Khan, the Secretary of the League Party in the Central
Assembly, with the secret consent of the truth-seeker,
Gandhiji, who had always declared that there was no place
for secrecy with him. This treacherous pact surpassed the
Rajaji formula. It agreed to a percentage of fifty-fifty in all
representations for the Hindus and the Muslims. The parity
of the alliance of the Congress with the League in the Central
Assembly now ripened into a reality. Shortly after this Lord
Wavell, the Viceroy, flew to London on March 21, 1945, with
these proposals for the formation of an Interim Government at
the Centre. This was a further loss of Hindu rights. This
pact was also supported by the Sapru Committee’s findings
which were cabled to Lord Wavell in London simultaneously.
There was a race, as it were, of betraying Hindu interests
amongst all the Hindu leaders except the Mahasabha leaders !
Though the Sapru Committee stood for a Union of India as
also for adult franchise and joint electorates, it conceded
parity of representation in the Central Assembly and the
Union Executive between Muslims and Hindus other than
the Scheduled Castes. The Muslims pocketed the proposals of
parity. The British Government as usual accepted the parity,
the worst part of the proposals, and threw away the proviso
for joint electorates ! The Hindu Mahasabha never hoped for
any honourable settlement to come out of it. Dr. Moonje

FIGHT FOR AKHANO HINDUSTHAN 333

warned the Hindus not to expect too much of Wavell’s visit to
London.

Though Savarkar was keeping indifferent health and was
hardly out of his bereavement, he had to direct some impor-
tant features of policy regarding the Hindu States. So in
response to the fervent appeals from the States’ Hindu leaders
like Sri Anand Priya of Baroda, he presided over the All-India
Hindu States Conference at Baroda in April 1945. Then
in the month of May, Savarkar’s only daughter Miss Prabhat
was married at Poona <o Sri Madhavrao Chiplunkar, the
grandson of the brother of Sri Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, the
brilliant colleague of Tilak and eminent essayist of Maha-
rashtra. During his stay at Poona Savarkar addressed the
Hindu Rashtra Dal, — ^now outlawed — ^then a new semi-
volunteer organization aiming at the spread and propagation
of unalloyed Savarkarism for the consolidation and all-out
social and political revolution in conformity with its ideal,
which could not be principally preached in any other
organization.

After a stay of nine weeks in London, Lord WaveU returned
to India in the first week of June with the so-called Wavell
Plan. At one stroke the three-year old deadlock was sought
to be broken by the Viceroy through an announcement. In
his broadcast His Excellency, the Viceroy, said he proposed,
with the full support of His Majesty’s Government, to invite
Indian leaders to take counsel with him with a view to the
formation of a new Executive Council, more representative of
organized political opinion. The proposed new Plan, he
declared, would represent the main communities and would
include an equal proportion of caste-Hindus and Muslims.
There was no reference to the Indian States in the Plan, not
to speak of Indian Independence. The Plan, however, pre-
supposed full co-operation in the war against Japan by the
leaders. Consequently, the erstwhile “ Quit India heroes ”
were released to take part in the Simla Conference without
even a shadow of success in their struggle. The Congress
leaders were ready now to fight for British imperialism
against the Japanese aggression and even against Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army as openly
declared by Pandit Nehru.

334 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

With the blessings of the Mahatma and the betrayal of the
nation sponsored by the Congress, Lord Wavell thus killed the
last hope of democracy in India with his nefarious Plan. The
Muslims who formed only 22 per cent of the total Indian
population were given parity in representation with the caste-
Hindus consisting of 54 per cent of the total Indian population.
Hindus who formed nearly 75 per cent of the total Indian
population were thereby divided between the caste-Hindus
and the Scheduled Classes. The Congress represented the
caste-Hindus through its Muslim President, Maulana Azad.
The Muslims were represented through the League President,
Mr. Jinnah, the parties in the Central Assembly were repre-
sented through the leaders of their parties in the Central
Assembly, and the Premiers of the Provinces were also
invited to attend the Conference. The Sikhs and the Scheduled
Classes were represented by their own leaders. The Hindu
Mahasabha was the only political party that was deliberately
ignored and dropped out of the Simla Conference. Even the
mildest possible leader from the Hindu Mahasabha would not
have stooped to agree to the anti-democratic, anti-progressive
and unjust proposal of parity between the caste-Hindus and
the Muslims.

The Conference met at Simla on June 28, 1945. Within the
first few hours the Simla Conference agreed to the basic
aspect of the Wavell Plan, namely the prosecution of war
against Japan. But weeks of open and private negotiations
thereafter failed to produce an agreement on the personnel
of the Central Government Executive and the Simla Con-
ference ended on the 14th July 1945, keeping on record the
acceptance of the parity between the caste-Hindus and the
Muslims. Thus the Wavell Plan failed according to plan, but
assuring a further gain to the Muslims !

The Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha met in
the meantime on the 24th and 25th of June at Poona. At a
mammoth meeting attended by over seventy-five thousand
people on the grounds of the S. P. College, Dr. S. P. Mookerjee
under the presidentship of Savarkar made a very stirring
speech condemning the Wavell Plan. A protest week was
observed from July 1 to July 7, 1945, at the behest of the
Hindu Mahasabha all over India. Accordingly thousands of

FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAH 335

meetings all over India simultaneously condemned the
Wavell Plan as anti-Hindu, anti-national and anti-demo-
cratic ! At a Bombay meeting during the protest week
Dr. Mookerjee, the President of the Hindu Mahasabha,
described the Simla Conference as a combination of
conspirators comprising British imperialists, Muslim Leaguers
and the Congress leaders.

There was a sense of embarrassment and shame in the
general feeling and tone of the public for their nationalist
leaders who had .stooped so low. Some of the Congress
leaders were ashamed ir their heart of hearts for having
supported the anti-national Wavell Plan. They had lost their
face. Their Premiers, Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant and Sri B.
G. Kher, were seized for a time with a feeling of perturbation
at the permanent reduction of the Hindu majority to a
minority and at the elevation of the Muslim minority to the
majority. But their repentant awakening proved to be
abortive and momentary. Perhaps their Mahratta blood must
have boiled at the crushing humiliation meted out to the
national majority of Hindusthan.

Savarkar called the parity between Hindus and Muslims as
a negation of nationalism, and said that to honest thinking
men, it was the pyre of Indian nationalism ! Where was the
man of forward march and progress. Pandit Nehru ? This
defender of democracy, the dreamer of the shape of things
to come. Pandit Nehru, was all the while a party to
this anti-national Wavell Plan. After some time the Congress
leaders and papers, who always held the prestige of their High
Command to be more precious than the interests of the nation
in general, were callous enough to say that the Wavell Plan
was an interim arrangement and so it could be tolerated. This
face-saving argument of the leaders of the Congress evoked
a crushing retort from Dr. Mookerjee who asked the Congress
leaders : “ Can you ever commit an interim suicide ? If

not, then suicide once committed can never be undone ! ”

The country-wide protests against the parity proposals
envisaged by the Wavell Plan were growing daily. The Hindu
Mahasabha intended to launch direct action against the
Wavell Plan. As a first step, eminent Mahasabha leaders like
Sir Gokulchand Narang, Raja Maheswar Dayal and Rai

336 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

Bahadur Harischandra renounced their titles. But unfortun-
ately the Mahasabha President, Dr. S. P. Mookerjee, utterly
failed to turn the boiling opposition to good account and to
launch any direct action in defence of democracy and the
rights of the national majority — the direct action which he
once so much clamoured for inopportunely. Had the Hindu
Mahasabha done this, it would have risen in the eyes of the
public. It was here that the rudder of the ship of the Hindu
Mahasabha broke down and the rudderless ship was swept
down along with the inexperienced and vacillating captain
into the trough of the popular estimation in the election held
soon thereafter.

But the fact that the Hindu Mahasabha was the only
political organization that stood stubbornly against the anti-
national Wavell Plan will be recorded by history. Times
needed a stronger action and efforts than they put in. Their
protests were not powerful enough to bring down the prestige
of the leaders of the Congress which had stooped to the
anti-national, anti-democratic and anti-Hindu parity proposals
as conceived by the Wavell Plan. Mere condemnation could
not crush out the Congress misdeeds at the Simla Conference.
It was thus that what Savarkar had won at Bhaganagar and
Bhagalpur, Mookerjee lost at Simla. The Mahasabha really
missed the bus !

After the failure of the Simla Conference, there were
bickerings among Congressmen for a while. It was rumoured
that Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru were impatient of the
moves taken by Rajaji and Bhulabhai Desai behind their back
which had led to the proposals of the Wavell Plan. Sardar
Patel was so indignant that at a meeting on the 9th August
in Bombay he thundered : “ If such diplomatic efforts are

repeated, take it from me that I would be out of the Congress.”
But the outcry and indignation was not the white heat, but
a white-wash to save the party from an internal breakdown.

Savarkar was feeling the strain of the continuous whirlwind
propaganda heavily. His health was fast deteriorating. With
great efforts he could attend to important correspondence and
allowed only important interviews in spite of medical advice.
One of the most important interviews that took place in
Augvist 1945 was with the representative of AUama Mishraki,

FIGHT FOR AKHAN0 HINDUSTHAN 337

the Chief of the Khaksars, regarding some scheme the
Khaksars had issued for discussion.

At this time there was a move by some scheming brains in
the Mahasabha to throw open the Hindu Mahasabha to the
non-Hindus. Savarkar advised the Working Committee of
the Hindu Mahasabha that they should keep the Hindu
Mahasabha intact inasmuch as every political question in India
was religious and every religious question was political. He
further strongly affirmed that the Hindu Mahasabha must
continue its mission evei after Hindusthan was politically
free.

Ill

During the pendency of the Simla Conference Britain went
to the polls and there was a landslide against the Conservative
party and the Labour party was returned to office on July 10,
1945, with an overwhelming majority in Britain. Almost
simultaneously Japan surrendered to the Allies in the East.
World events moved with an electric rapidity. The Viceroy
of India made a second trip to London in the latter half of
August 1945, and returned to India after the middle of
September 1945, to announce general elections to test the
strength of the political parties, to break the ground for future
political negotiations with the newly elected representatives,
to hammer out a constitution and to negotiate a treaty with
the Constituent Body.

Now all the issues, implications and intentions were to be
clarified. Who represented the Muslims and who represented
the Hindus ? The Congress with its gigantic political
machinery plunged into the election campaign heart and soul.
Supported by the ‘ Pakistan ' purse, the Muslim League also
entered the election arena with ‘ Pakistan or Perish ’ as its
slogan. The Congress manifesto stressed the Quit India
demand and the Congress leaders and the press swore by an
undivided India. The Hindu Mahasabha with its meagre
purse and scanty press entered the field with the slogans
‘ Independence and Integrity of India,’ ‘ By our way lies, O
Hindus, your salvation, Congress way lies your destruction
and ruin.’ The Mahasabha leaders announced with justifica-

22

338 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

tion that ‘ a vote for the Congress was a vote for Pakistan ! '
Besides scanty press and a scanty purse, there was one more
disadvantage from which the Hindu Mahasabha suffered.
Throughout the election period the Hindu Mahasabha lacked
the iron and dynamic leadership of Savarkar, for he was
bed-ridden and made no move. As regards the Congress, it was
the greatest political party in India, and had ruled over seven
Provinces and had many opportunities to influence people as
rulers. Besides, it had at its disposal a big press, big purses
and big political wholetime machinery employed for the
election campaign.

And on top of it all came the somersaults of the Congres.s
leaders that allured the people. Sardar Patel inspired
confidence in the Hindu electorates by his anti-Pakistan out-
bursts and anti-League speeches. Congress was rapidly
gaining confidence and the Hindu Mahasabha was swiftly
losing its position. In the last week of September 1945, at a
meeting of the All-India Congress Committee in Bombay,
Sardar Patel even demonstratively chastised a Muslim
member, one Mr. Mians, in these wox’ds : “ If you say that the
Muslim League is a nationalist organization, why are you to
be found in the Congress at aU ? Ever since the Congress
abandoned unadulterated nationalism the mischief has grown.
That was when the Congress accepted the separate communal
electorates. There have since then been a series of mistakes.
From minority representation we travelled to the fifty-fifty
parity principle. Now it would never be repeated. Congres.s
will never go to the Muslim League.” What a confession
vindicating Savarkar’s charges against the Congress !

Pandit R. S. Shukla, Prime Minister of C.P. and Berar
declared that if Pakistan was established, Muslims in
Hindusthan would be treated as foreigners ! In Calcutta, at
Deshbandhu Park Pandit Nehru thundered that there could
be no truce with the Muslim League which had always
opposed the Congress struggle. The Muslim League
propaganda railed and rained. Mr. Liaqat Ali, the League
Secretary, said at Delhi, “ The Muslim is a born fighter. He ,
may hesitate to cast a vote for Pakistan, but he would not
hesitate to shed his blood.” Mr. H. S. Suhrawardy, another
League Leader, now notorious for his outrageous unconcern

FIGHT FOR AKHANO HINDUSTHAN 339

at the Hindu deaths in the Calcutta killing, challenged Pandit
Nehru to win a single Muslim seat in the Central or Provincial
Assembly. And his challenge was unfailing, for not a single
Muslim seat was won in the election by the Congress from the
Muslim electorates. In this state, Savarkar persistently sighed
from his sick-bed for Hindu wisdom. Ailing Savarkar said in a
frantic and forlorn appeal to the Hindus that disaster would
overtake India if Congressmen were elected to the Legislatures
on mere promises. But oe Congress had hypnotized the
Hindu masses with the . olen thunders and the borrowed
Mahasabha slogans, and seer.ied to win.

The most unfortunate aspect of the election affair for the
Hindu Mahasabha was that its President, Dr. Mookerjee,
lost his grit and confidence in the nick of time. There was a
sudden breakdown in his health. Pandit Nehru and Sardar
Patel who never showed courtesy of inquiring after Savarkar’s
health even during his serious illness, prepared the ground
for further events when they all ran to Dr. Mookerjee to
enquire after his health. The sudden rush and gush of their
anxiety and interest in the health of Dr. Mookerjee was a
pointer. He gave up the struggle even before he joined the
battle ! What would be the fate of the organization led by
a leader without unbending will and invincible faith ? That
is what exactly happened in the case of the Hindu Mahasabha’s
political life.

In the meanwhile, the question of the I.N.A. men’s trial
came to the forefront. In the first week of December 1945,
Savarkar urged Mr. Attlee, the Prime Minister of Great
Britain, to release all the I.N.A. soldiers without any
humiliating conditions as an act of grace by declaring a
general amnesty in view of the general convention of inter-
national treatment dealt out to war prisoners and in view of
the very deep discontent aroused in the public mind. The
Hindu Mahasabha had also observed an I.N.A. day, but the
Congressmen who had styled the I.N.A. as “ rice soldiers ”
earlier now took their very side, stole a march over the Hindu
Mahasabha, and fully utilized the political sympathy and
energy emanating from the I.N.A. trials for their own party
ends. Savarkar was bed-ridden ; Bhopatkar and Moonje
moved in the affair, but without response.

340 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

The interest taken by top-ranking leaders of the Congress
in the I.N.A. trials may have been with an eye to the elections,
as was evinced from the very ungenerous attitude they
adopted towards the I.N.A. men after they were firmly
installed into power. Similarly, the imflinching oaths taken
by the Congress leaders to stand by united India were shame-
lessly betrayed afterwards and the Hindu Mahasabha slogans
openly adopted as their own by Congress leaders like Sardar
Patel, proved veritable bombshells on the popular support to
the Mahasabha candidates, and the sentinels and defenders of
Akhand Hindusthan were routed in their last ditch. But let
it be recorded here that their heroic failure was more glorious
than the pyrrhic success of the Congress candidates. The
Hindu Mahasabha candidates, like Bhopatkar and Bhai
Parmananda stood unflinchingly at the risk of their lives with
an iron will as the sign-posts warning the Hindus : “ Our

way lies your salvation ; Congress way lies your ruin ! ”

The Hindu Mahasabha was in the end completely wiped out
of the political picture of India, so far as the election results
were concerned. And what about the Congress ? Oh ! it
also met its Waterloo in the fields held by Muslim electorates.
History repeats. The Rajputs fought Maha Rana Pratap for
the Moguls, and they also fought the Mahrattas for the Moguls.
Here the Congress fought the Hindu candidates with terrific
ruthlessness and routed them.

But by securing all the thirty-two Muslim seats in the
Central Assembly, the Muslim League routed all the Congress
Muslim candidates so completely that had not Mr. Asaf Ali
been elected by a joint electorate at Delhi, there would have
been no Muslim left even for adoption purposes for the self-
styled Indian National Congress which boasted of representing
the Muslims also. The victory of the Pakistani forces was so
complete and great that Mr. Jinnah declared in Delhi that his
victory was the victory of a nation and the Leaguers achieved
what Hitler could not. With the Congressmen playing the
role of Chamberlain, his boast held much water.

One more point deserves attention. The Hindu Mahasabha
was the only Hindu Organization that stood by its pledges to
the Hindu Nation through fire and water. What were the
Arya Samajists and the R.S.S. men doing ? Let it be said to

FIGHT FOR AKHAND HINDUSTHAH 341

the credit of the small per cent of those defenders of the Hindu
Nation from these two organizations that they did help the
Hindu candidates far-sightedly enough, but let it also be
recorded that a good many persons from these two great
institutions of Hindu hope and faith kept culpable neutrality
over such a life and death struggle in which the Hindu Nation
was involved, while the majority of them were reported to
have voted for the Congress.

This colossal rout accelerated the deterioration in the health
of Savarkar so much so ’hat in a telegram sent to Sri N. C.
Chatterji he bewailed. “ My nerve system has been literally
shattered for the last two years. It has now collapsed.”
Savarkar now realized from his sick bed the implications of
the success of the Congress in the elections at the hands of the
Hindu electorates. He realized that the battle for Akhand
Hindusthan was almost lost. So great was the nervous
exhaustion that followed from this that at times in his bed he
showed signs of blurred memory and soon on expert medical
advice, he was removed on January 1, 1946, to Walchandnagar
near Poona where the undivided devotion to the Hindu cause
in Seth Gulabchand and his reverential affection for his leader
looked after Savarkar’s health with great care and anxiety.

CHAPTER XIX

From Parity to Pakistan

I

The year 1946 opened with general elections to the
Provincial Legislatures all over India. Congressmen used the
same old tactics and reiterated the pledge of a United India.
On January 14, 1946, Sardar Patel thundered at Ahmedabad :
‘‘ Granting of Pakistan is not in the hands of the British Gov-
ernment. If Pakistan is to be achieved, Hindus and Muslims
will have to fight. There will be a civil war. The Congress
is no longer going to knock at the doors of the League. The
Congress has tried to settle with the League many times. But
it has been kicked every time.’’ Such masterpieces of the
Sardar, the steam-roller of the power and prestige of the party
that had ruled, and the press, purse and propaganda let loose
by the greatest political organization in India, overran the
Hindu Mahasabha candidates in elections. And the Hindu
Mahasabha was entirely thrown into the shade. The League
emerged as the authoritative mouthpiece of the Muslims and
the Congress of the Hindus alone.

In the meanwhile, anti-British feelings reached a climax.
A burst-up became inevitable. The I.N.A. trial gave rise to
it ; the Royal Indian Naval Ratings and the Royal Indian Air
Force raised the banner of revolt in Bombay, Calcutta and
Karachi. The backbone of the Imperial structure thus
seemed to break down. The army, too, was feeling and
experiencing the pangs of freedom.

The British Labour Party after coming into power sent a
delegation of ten members of the British Parliament to India.
The delegation had a four-week survey and talks with various
leaders of all parties. They had invited Savarkar to meet
them, but Savarkar was not then in Bombay. He was
convalescing at Walchandnagar, The Delegation returned to
England on February 10. On February 19 Lord Pethick
Lawrence, the Secretary of State for India, announced the

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 343

intention of His Majesty’s Government to send out a delegation
of three Cabinet Members, Sir Stafford Cripps, Mr. A. V
Alexander and himself, to discuss with the Indian i>arty
leaders on the spot the question of solving the political dead-
lock in the country. On March 15 the British Prime Minister,
Mr. Attlee, declared India’s right to attain full independence
within or even without the British Commonwealth, if she so
desired and in respect of the minority problem of India he
said : “We cannot allow a minority to place their veto on the
advance of the majoriiy.” The British Cabinet Mission
subsequently arrived in ] >eihi on March 24. Numerous inter-
views, discussions and deliberations took place in the Viceregal
Lodge. On April 5 Pandit Nehru thundered : “ The Congress
is not going to agree to the Muslim League demand for
Pakistan under any circumstances whatever, even if the
Britiwsh Government agrees to it.” What history records is
quite the reverse ! Only a few days after this warUkc speech,
a whole nation witnessed that Nehru pathetically enough ate
his words in the end !

Another outstanding feature on the political scene was that
Mr. Jinnah represented the Muslims, Maulana Azad
represented the Hindus and the Nawab of Bhopal, the princely
India. Thus the whole of India was represented by Muslim
leaders ! Mr. Jinnah was re-affirming his anti-Indian role,
and refused to call himself an Indian even.

Jinnah’s lieutenants were not lagging behind. Before ihe
League Legislators’ Convention held in Delhi, Gandhiji’s
Shahid Sahib, Mr. H. S. Suhrawardy, declared on April 9,
in Hitleric vein that Pakistan was Muslims’ latest, but not
the last demand and if the Britishers entrusted the destiny of
India to Congress Junta, the Muslim League would not allow
the Central Government to function even for a day. Another
Muslim League leader, Sir Firoz Khan Noon, warned the
British Government that the destruction and havoc that the
Muslims would do in the country would put into the shade
what Chengizkhan had done.^

While the discussions and deliberations with the Cabinet
Mission were going on at Delhi, Savarkar returned to Poona

1 A Noted Journalist, Hopes and Fears (with a foreword by
Dr. Pattabhai Sitaramayya) , pp. 21-22.

344 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

on April 3, from Walchandnagar slightly recovered from the
nervous exhaustion, and was convalescing at the Poona Hotel.
On January 20 he had a severe heart attack at Walchandnagar.
Sri Bhopatkar saw Savarkar in Poona before he put a
memorandum on the 15th of April before the Mission along
with Dr. Mookerjee on behalf of the Hindu Mahasabha. The
memorandum stated “ that geographically, politically and
culturally India was one whole and indivisible. This integrity
and indivisibility must be maintained whatever the cost and
sacrifice be.” The memorandum further warned the Mission
that partition of India into two or more sovereign States under
any guise or disguise would be economically unsound and
disastrous, politically unwise and suicidal.

Political scenes were changing with rapidity. A Tripartite
Conference consisting of the British ministers, the Viceroy,
representatives of the Congress and the League, was held at
Simla, on May 12, 1946, but it failed to arrive at any decision.
The Mission then came out with a new proposal now known
as the State Paper of May 16. Tliis document repudiated
Mr. Jinnah’s claim for division of India, contemplated a Central
Union although with powers restricted only to matters of
external affairs, defence and communications, gave full
autonomy to the provinces, and provided facihties for the
provinces to form themselves into three groups two of which,
B and C, were mischievously and evidently conceived as a
concession to the League Lord. A Constituent Assembly was
to be elected by the Provincial Legislatures for framing a
constitution for the Indian State ; an Interim Government
comprising representatives of the major communities and
important minorities was planned ; and the States, freed from
the crown paramountcy, were to join the Constituent
Assembly for hammering out a Union of the provinces and the
States. The electorate was divided into the General, Muslims
and Sikhs. Thus in the land of the Hindus, there was no
electorate named after them in the administration of India.

The League accepted the State Paper on May 22, hoping
to work out Pakistan through the proposed groups, and
Mr. Jinnah proposed to hold out his hand of co-operation to
the Congress. The Congress, too, accepted the Plan of May
16 as it stood, and declared its willingness to join the

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 345

Constituent Assembly with a view to framing the constitution
of a free, united and democratic India.

Towards the end of June 1946, the Cabinet Mission returned
to London leaving it to Lord Wavell to work out the procedure
and form an Interim Government. On July 10 Pandit Nehru
told a press conference at Bombay that there would be finally
no grouping as the Congress held that the provinces should
be considered free at the initial stage to opt out of the section
or group in which they were placed. This unstatesmanly
statement of Pandit Nehi t, gave a handle to Mr. Jinnah to
push his demands, and ou J’Jy 27, 1946, the League Council
resolved at its meeting in Bombay to resort to Direct Action,
rejecting the Cabinet Mission proposal which it had previously
accepted ! Mr. Jinnah refused to discuss the ethics of violence
and non-violence and the League Secretary declared their
determination to employ every means in their power to
achieve their object. The Sind minister preached destruction
and extermination of every one who opposed them.^ There-
upon the Congress nervously ran to patch up this gulf, and
reasserted acceptance of the State Paper fully ! On August
24 the Viceroy declared his resolve to form an Interim
Government of sixteen Members out of which six were to be
the nominees of the Congress, five of the League and five
representatives of the minorities. The Congress took office on
September 2, 1946, gave one out of its six seats to the
Depres.sed Classes and one more to a Muslim thus reducing
mercilessly the national majority to a minority in the Cabinet,
and all this when the Muslim League did not even co-operate
in the formation of the Interim Government.

The acceptance of office by the Congress put Jinnah in a
trap. Jinnah rightly believed that the Congress under its
historic leadership of Gandhiji and Nehru would be nervous
about the formation of an All-India Government without the
co-operation of the Muslims ! Two Muslims were appointed
temporarily and one of them was almost stabbed to death at
Simla, and he ultimately succumbed. To make the functioning

^ The Times of India, Bombay, dated 29-7-1946.

346 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

of the Interim Government led by the Congress impossible,
the Muslim League started its Direct Action on August 16,
which led to an unprecedented holocaust in Calcutta, well-
known now as the great killing, spreading the virus and
holocaust over the Noakhali District in Eastern Bengal and
followed by looting, kidnapping, forced mass conversions, forced
marriages, arson and mass murders of the Hindus in villages
and towns in the Eastern Districts of Bengal. Acharya J, B.
Kripalani, the then President-elect of the Meerut Session of the
Congress, toured those affected parts of Bengal, saw those
places of inhuman atrocities and mass murders, and declared
in a shuddering voice that they were planned and pre-organ-
ized by the Muslims. “ War was not like this,” wrote a military
officer in the Statesman, Calcutta. The Congress leaders in
power proved utterly unequal to the task of putting down the
organized fanaticism of the Muslims. British imperialism
had physically disarmed the Hindus, Gandhism had enfeebled
them mentally, and the curfew Raj had done the rest for them.
Amidst such a confusion and chaos Jinnah shrewdly pushed
his lieutenants into the Interim Government without even
raising liis usual objection to the inclusion of the Congress
Muslim in the Interim Government and the fight for Pakistan
thus began with renewed force and fire to sabotage the
Mission Plan which aimed at setting up an All-India centre,
which the Muslim League detested. With a view to dealing
a fatal blow at the Plan, the Muslim League leaders including
those in the Interim Government spoke and wrote in fire and
all this under the very eyes of Pandit Nehru and the Home
Member, Sardar Patel ! Mr. Ghaznafar Ali Khan, the Health
Minister in the Viceroy’s Interim Government, speaking at
Lahore, said, “ If Mohammad Bin Kasim and Muhammad of
Ghazni could invade India with armies composed of a few
thousands, and yet were able to overpower lakhs of Hindus,
God willing, a few lakhs of Muslims will yet overwhelm crores
of Hindus.” ^ On another occasion he asked the Hindus to
embrace Islam and to save themselves from the holocaust.
And yet this communalist upstart was allowed to continue in
the Interim Government. Echoes of the terrific tragedies in
Bengal were on the lips of even the dying Pandit Madan

I The Free Press Journal, Bombay.

PROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 347

Mohan Maiaviya at Benares. Moved by the multitudes of
Hindu refugees, deprived of their homes, wives, children and
everythiiig i)i Bengal, the feelings of the Hindus ran high in
every province. In Bihar, the Land of the Guptas, furious riots
followed on a terrific scale, so much so that Mr. Jinnah
bewailed that retaliation for Bihar would be a catastrophe.
Dr. Moonje warned the Hindus at a meeting in Kurukshetra
that the Hindus were facing a civil war.

Lord Wavel], the Commander-in-Chief and Pandit Nehru
flew to the scene in Biha Sardar Patel resorted to drastic
action, Nehru threatened .he Bihar Hindus with bullets and
aerial bombardment, the poh se opened fire on several occasions
and all the Government forces suppressed ruthlessly the
uprising in Bihar. Gandhiji went one stop further. He
tlireatened the Bihar Hindus with a fast. Nehru said that if
the Bihar Hindus wanted to kill the Muslims, they should
first kill him. There was wide discontent among the Hindus
at the well-meant but incompatible attitude of the Congress
leaders who helplessly witnessed and heard about the mas-
sacres of the Hindus in Bengal. Even Congress-minded
papers resented this attitude. The Yashoda in its weekly
issue (Vol. VI, No. 4, 78 Gandhian era) observed in its
editorial: “If Nehru’s body must fall, it must fall at
Noakhali. If Gandhiji is to fast, he should fast in Noakhali.
The dark figures of the great tragedy enacted at Noakhali
must be brought to justice.” The paper further observed in
its News and Notes that Noakhali bled, and nobody went
near the place till there was no more to bleed. And then the
Viceroy and other dignitaries conducted post-mortem exami-
nations and gave their verdicts so obviously devoid of truth
that they could deceive nobody. The Weekly added in its
last article : “ But the role of Gandhiji throughout is as
untenable as it is incredulous. Till the communal flare in
Bihar, he was passive. Only to Bihar he issues his clarion
call for repentance and good behaviour on penalty of his
penance to slow death.” The Weekly concludes : “ No other
explanation can be offered for his guilty inactivity over the
East Bengal affair.”

All this account is narrated only as a matter of history. The
author is not out to justify, nor is it needed to do so, the

348 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

attacks made by the Hindus in Bihar on other religionists.
However, he cannot but feel the unbelievable passive attitude
on the part of the Congress leaders in power towards the
atrocities committed by the Muslims elsewhere for the same
reason ; for violence, whenever, wherever and howsoever
it occurs, must be condemned. That violence which provokes
the subsequent violence must be curbed and condemned first.
And without doubt Congress leaders lamentably failed in this
sacred duty. If the forces of justice and humanity are real
and potent in your breast, you cannot remain a passive
spectator at one time and an active defender at another.

Savarkar returned to Bombay on August 5, 1946. By now
Hindu-Muslim riots had become a common affair in Bombay.
The Hindu Sanghatanists were still valiantly defending the
hearths and homes from the organized mass fury of the un-
declared civil war by the Muslims in Bengal, Bihar, Bombay
and the Punjab. Sri Rajendra Roy Chaudhari, President of
the Noakhali District Hindu Sabha, died heroically in defence
of Hindu homes and Hindu honour. Hindu Sabhas all over
India arranged for the relief of the Noakhali Hindu sufferers
with the active aid of the perennial, patriotic and pan-Hindu
sympathies of the Hindu leaders like Raja Narayanlal
Bansilal, Bombay.

Soon after the Muslim League’s joining the Interim Govern-
ment, a first class crisis developed. After their entry into the
Interim Government, the Leaguers refused to join the Consti-
tuent Assembly.

Sardar Patel got indignant and drove Pandit Nehru to the
Viceroy. The Viceroy, who had, to quote the words of the
Times of India, Bombay, made untiring efforts to get justice
and ‘ even more than justice for the League,’ was charged
with conspiring with the League. Patel had also thundered
at the Meerut Session of the Congress that either the League
must join the Constituent Assembly or get out of the Interim
Government. There seemed no way out. So the British
Government invited Mr. Jinnah and Nehru to London for a
Conference for the solution of the legal points arisen out of the
interpretations put by the contending parties. Accordingly
Mr. Jinnah and Pandit Nehru flew to London. There with his
le^al acumen Mr. Jinnah carried the day and the vociferous

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 349

Pandit Nehru failed. This perturbed Sardar Patel and
he thundered that the Congress would not accept the British
Government’s statement of December 6. But the All-India
Congress Committee in its Session on January 15, 1947, swal-
lowed that bitter pill too when Sardar Patel remained absent.
Now the decision given by the British Government threatened
the legal existence of the Constituent Assembly. It meant
that the constitution could not be valid unless it was approved
by the Muslim League !

In the meantime, the hindu Mahasabha Session was held
in the last week of December 1946, at Gorakhpur, under the
presidentship of Sri L. B. Bhopatkar. The Hindu Mahasabha
reiterated its demand for a Sovereign Independent State and
its faith in the indivisibility and integrity of India. In
December 1946, the Constituent Assembly opened its Session
and Dr. Jayakar was heckled for his conciliatory attitude
towards the League by those very Congressmen whose history
was full of national surrenders and who within a few months
of getting into power betrayed the nation’s integrity. No less
a personality than Dr. Ambedkar vigorously castigated the
Congress leaders in the Constituent Assembly ‘for killing a
strong Centre themselves.’ The misunderstanding of the
political issue, and the indecisive, short-sighted and vacillating
policy on the part of the Congress leaders dismayed the political
firmament.

In the midst of such a gloomy, grave and despairing
situation came the realization of the correctness of the fear-
less, far-sighted and unbending lead that had been given by
Savarkar. Dr. S. P. Mookerjee in his letter of February 10,
1947, wrote to Savarkar : “ If the Hindus had only listened
to your call, they would not have remained as slaves in the
land of their birth.” The confusion and the prevailing chaos
had begun to trouble the mind of Savarkar. He gave a sigh
of relief at the Pan-Hindu consciousness as regards self-
respect which the land of the Guptas had shown and he, there-
fore, sent a donation to the Bihar Provincial Hindu Sabha
‘ for the relief of the heroic Hindu sufferers of Bihar.’

*1110 British Cabinet was now fast txirning the pages of
history. In February 1947, the British Government announced
their intention to take necessary steps to effect the transfer

350 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

of Power to responsible Indian hands by a date not later than
June 1948. The termination of Lord Wavell’s wartime
appointment and the appointment of Viscount Mountbatten as
his successor were also announced simultaneously. The
defeated forces of Akhand Hindusthan were now striving
valiantly to rally again. In the first week of the following
month, Savarkar blessed the Hindu-Sikh unity sponsored by
Master Tara Singh in his forlorn attempts for maintaining the
integrity of India, and expressed the hope that “Guru
Govindsingh would steel the hearts of the Hindu-Sikh
brotherhood and strengthen the hands in fighting for the
freedom and the integrity of India.”

The undeclared Muslim uncivil war that disgraced the
Indian brotherhood, nationhood and motherhood was still
raging on. The big guns of the Congress had lost control over
the situation. The Home Member, Sardar Patel, true to his
soldierly frankness described the grave situation when he
said that almost every Muslim servant in the Govermnent was
Pakistani. His advice in a helpless mood was that everybody
should be a policeman and protect himself.

By this time the demand for a separate Province of West
Bengal was being hotly discussed and debated in Bengal. The
partition of Bengal, which was ruthlessly condemned forty
years ago, was demanded now by the kith and kin of
Khudiram Bose. What a queer fate ! On March 22, 1947, in
a statement Savarkar “ supported the demand for a separate
Hindu Majority Province in West Bengal owing loyal alle-
giance to a consolidated, strong and sovereign Central Hindu-
sthan State.”

As declared by the British Government, Lord Wavell made
his exit from India towards the end of March 1947. The New
Viceroy came in. Savarkar wired to the new Viceroy, Lord
Mountbatten, urging him to consult the Mahasabha President
and Master Tara Singh before any fundamental changes
affecting the Hindus were effected. Savarkar knew that India
was fast approaching a momentous decision. He, therefore,
urged the Bengal Hindu Sabha and the Bengal Hindus on
April 4, 1947, to demand a separate new Hindu Province in
West Bengal and to expel the Muslim trespassers from Assam
at any cost. He also demanded that the contiguous Hindu

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 351

Majority Districts of Sind should be joined to the Bombay
Province. Savarkar concluded his statement by saying that
the Murlim minority would be given the same kind of treat-
ment as would be meted out to the Hindu minorities in the
Muslim majority provinces.^

Savarkar feared that Assam which was tagged on to the
Eastern Group of Pakistan would fall a victim to Muslim
aggression. Assam was threatened by the Muslim Direct
Action on the one hand and the Muslim influx into the
provin^'e on the other. S . he again warned towards the end
of April 1947, Sri BardoL u ihe Prime Minister of Assam, and
Sri Vishnudas, the Revenue Minister, not to surrender an
inch to the Muslims and asked the ministers to eject every
Muslim trespasser old and new to a man. Both of them duly
acknowledged the telegrams and with due assurance. In the
same month Savarkar asked the Bengal Hindus ‘ to beware
of Gandhiji’s scheming platitudes avowing open hostility to
the demand for framing Hindu majority Provinces in the East
and West of India.’ The new Viceroy interviewed the leaders
of the Congress and the League and flew to London in May
1947. On the eve of liis departure Dr. Mookerjee had put his
demand for a separate Hindu Province in the West of Bengal.
The British Cabinet approved the blueprint of the Viceroy
and the swift procedure for its execution.

Now the final decision was reached. Savarkar knew that
the last moment to be or not to be had come. On May 29,
1947, in a fervent and forlorn appeal to the Congressites
Savarkar urged them not to betray the electorates and India
by agreeing to a scheme involving vivisection of the Mother-
land. He reminded them that they had not been elected to
the legislatures on the issue of partition and their Constituent
Assembly had also no right ah initio even to consider such a
proposal. Hence he urged upon them to resign their seats
and posts and to seek re-election on the clear-cut issue of
Pakistan or Akhand Hindusthan, if they were for the parti-
tion of India. Savarkar further suggested to the Congress
leaders that they might demand a plebiscite to decide such a
momentous issue involving the life and death of the nation
and the destiny of future generations. But who was there

1 Free Hindusthan^ Bombay, dated 6-4-1947.

352 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

in his senses in the Congress to consider such a proposal in
a democratic way when the wordy Congress democrats were
reeling in the drunken joy of party and personal power ?
What other country has witnessed such a betrayal ?

Th e Congress leaders were now in a mood of speedy sur-
rendering. Speaking at the U. P. Political Conference, Pandit
Nehru declared on April 29, 1947 : “ The Muslim League can
have Pakistan if they wish to have it.” Sardar Patel said on
April 14, 1947, in Bombay ; “ If India should be partitioned,
it could only be done after mutual discussion amongst our-
selves and in a peaceful manner.” Dr. Rajendra Prasad
showed anxiety for the division of the defence forces. The
Congress leaders spoke and acted as if the integrity and
indivisibility of Hindusthan was a matter of the past with
them ! So now Unity and Integrity of India was the concern
of Savarkar alone !

The Viceroy soon returned with the sanction of the British
Cabinet for his proposal and on June 3, 1947, the Prime
Minister of Britain from London and the Viceroy from Delhi
announced simultaneously their new plan known as the
June 3rd Plan. The New Plan contemplated the creation of
one or two Dominions by August 15, 1947, provision for
separate Constituent Assemblies, partition of the Punjab a nd
Bengal provinces, referendum for Baluchistan, the North-
West Frontier Province and the Sylhet district of Assam to
decide what dominion they would join.

Savarkar was now fighting a lost cause. But as he was the
truest son of India, he tried to tap every corner, every source,
every means to avert the political matricide. The Working
Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha met at Delhi on the 7th
and 8th June 1947. Savarkar sent a message to President
Bhopatkar on June 8, saying that the Hindu Sabhaites and the
Sanghatanists could never willingly sign the death-warrant
of the integrity of Hindusthan and urged Bhopatkar to
continue the struggle for re-annexing the revolting Moslem
provinces and for creating Hindu majority provinces in any
case — ^Pakistan or no Pakistan — ^in Bengal and the Punjab, and
for rejoining the contiguous Hindu majority Districts of Sind
to the Bombay Province. In the interests of Akhand Hindu-
sthan the Congressites, he said, should be called upon to resign

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 353

their mini %tries and posts and seek re-elections forthwith
on the issue of Pakistan, but they should not be allowed
to concede Pakistan and to betray the electorates. He also
urged the Sind Hindus and other minority communities in
Sind to press on with all possible means for the separation of
Hindu majority Districts in Sind and for the re-annexation of
those districts to the Hindusthan Union.^

The Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha also
reiterated its belief : “ India is one and indivisible and there
will nearer be peace unles>; and until the separated areas are
brought back into the Inuiau Union and made integral parts
thereof.” The Mahasabha Working Committee further
demanded a referendum in the Hindu majority areas in Sind
and in the Chittagong Hill tribes area in East Bengal
like the one in the Sylhet District in Assam to allow the
territories, if the majority in those respective areas desired,
to accede to the Indian Union.

The Congress leaders were now well prepared for their final
consent to the onslaught on the unity of India. In a written
message read oui> after the usual daily prayer-meeting in
Delhi, Gandhiji declared on June 9, 1947, that he was not
opposing the Congress acceptance of the new British Plan.
Nobody wondered at this news. This was a foregone conclu-
sion ! And the All-India Congress Committee in its Delhi
Session on June 14, 1947, accepted the 3rd June Plan by a
resolution supported by Pandit Nehru, the idol of the nation,
who had unequivocally professed and declared in the vein of
Lincoln to defend the integrity of India. This resolution was
upheld by the nationalist Muslim, Maulana Azad, now sup-
porting with divine satisfaction the creation of a Communalist
State out of India. Azad described the Plan as the only way
to settle India’s problem as the Congress was committed, he
recalled, to the principle of self-determination and was against
coercing any unwilling areas to join the Union ! But who
got the Congress committed to that resolution ? History
would record that all these Congress brand nationalist leaders
were at one in coercing other people in accepting Pakistan.

The Socialists in the All-India Congress Committee
remained neutral. They had no opinion to offer on such a

^ Free Hindusthan, Bombay, dated 8-6-1947.

23

354 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

vital issue in the life of the nation ! The lonely opponent in
the All-India Congress Committee opposing this nefarious
black decision and deed was Babu Purushottamdas Tandon
who appealed to the All-India Congress Committee that
though the Congress Working Committee had failed them, yet
the A.I.C.C. had the strength of millions behind them and
they must reject the resolution the acceptance of which would
be, he said, an abject surrender to the British and to the
Muslim League. Sardar Patel’s support to the partition of
India was a complete transfer scene from sword to surrender.

Gandhiji put an ultimatum before the A.I.C.C. He
threatened them either to accept the resolution conceding
Pakistan or to replace the old tried Congress leaders. He
advised them to accept the Plan and added that it was their
duty to stand by their leaders. To the Congress leaders their
prestige was more important than the destinies of the nation
and the fate of the millions ! That has been an unfortunate
characteristic of the Congress leadership. Savarkar repeatedly
exposed this fact and warned the people to remember that
the Congress party and their leaders were not greater than
the nation. Equally forcibly Dr. Ambedkar told the Congress
bosses in the Constituent Assembly that in deciding the
destinies of a people, the dignity of the leaders or men or
parties ought to count for nothing.

But Gandhiji threw his whole weight and the A.I.C.C.
accepted the resolution which accepted the creation of
Pakistan ! ^ And lo ! Gandhiji practised what he preached.
Did he not tell the nation ten years ago “ Needless to say, the
Congress can never seek the assistance of British forces to
resist the vivisection. It is the Muslims who will impose their
will by force, singly or with British assistance, on an unresist-
ing India. If I can carry the Congress with me, I would not
put the Muslims to the trouble of using force. I would be
ruled by them, for it would be still Indian rule.”

Gandhiji was a truth-seeker. Who is a truth-seeker ? One
who clings to truth and right even if the very heavens fall.
But Gandhiji, the voice of truth and the voice of non-violence,
who considered even coercing or forcing one’s views on others

1 Full report of the A.I.C.C. meeting in The Times of India, Bombay,
dated 16-6-1947.

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 355

a sin, hit the last nail on the coffin of Akhand Hindusthan and
the resolution was passed. According to Gandhiji, Pakistan
was an untruth and the truth-seeker became a party to un-
truth in broad daylight. To Gandhiji Pakistan was a denial
of God, but he deserted and denied God. The fundamental
rights of the people, the demand for a nation-wide plebiscite,
the call and voice of democracy were stifled to death by the
unrelenting divine dictatorship. And describing this event
next day, the Free Press Journal^ Bombay, one of the chief
spokesiiien of the Congres s, flashed in a full banner line the
news ‘ Nation’s Leaders Betray Country’s Cause ! ’ This was
the return gift of the Indian National Congress to the Mother-
land which had suckled it at her breast !

There were two men in India who could have smashed the
proposed scheme of the vivisection of India. They were
Gandhiji and Savarkar. But because of shattered health, a
cruel misfortune, the perfidy and levity of those countrymen
who regarded party above country, Savarkar failed despite
his superhuman efforts for a period of ten years. With the
greatest party at his beck and call, Gandhiji could have blown
up the scheme of Pakistan had he meant it from the bottom
of his heart. Gandhiji believed that nothing was impossible
for a Satyagrahi. He, therefore, could have easily declared
wdth Luther that ‘ peace if possible, but truth at any rate.’
But the unfortunate politician in Gandhiji, who always failed
and failed, got the upper hand and stifled the truth-seeker in
Gandhiji, and Gandhiji too failed. On the one hand Gandhiji
proved the maxim of Voltaire who said ‘ he who seeks truth
should be of no country ’ and on the other, he fulfilled the
prophecy of his Guru, Gokhale, who foretold that Gandhiji
would exercise enormous influence on the common man, but
when the history of political parleys would be written dis-
interestedly, he would go down in history as a great failure.^
Yet the shriek of Akhand Hindusthan was not extinct. At
the behest of the Working Committee of the Hindu Maha-
sabha an All-India anti-Pakistan Day was observed on July 3.
1947, to register a protest against the vivisection of the
Motherland. There was a considerable response throughout
India. Big cities like Bombay, Poona, Delhi and others almost

1 Satyagrahi, Graha and Tare, p. 60.

SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

suspended all market and business activities. Prabhat ferries
were taken out, protest meetings were held condemning fhe
vivisection of India, black Hags were hoisted denouncing the
partition as a betrayal of the aspirations of the great patriots
and great martyrs who had laid their lives at the altar of a
great cause. On August 2, 1947, Savarkar made a very pathetic
and appealing speech before a mammoth meeting at Poona.
He told the vast multitude of audience that in a way they
were also partly responsible for the vivisection of their
Motherland along with the Congress leaders ; because they
did not repudiate their leadership at the proper time, and
added that appeasement would never stop and satisfy the
aggressor. He recalled how the Congress lead sacrificed
democracy and nationalism for communalism. He began this
appealing speech in a very touching tone and said ; “ Since
you have gathered in thousands to hear a leader like me who
has attained ill-fame owing to my deathless resistance to the
creation of Pakistan, I believe, there is yet hope, for the
survival of this Hindu nation.”

Savarkar now accepted the defeat of the forces of Akhand
Hindusthan. The battle was lost, but the war for United
India was still to continue and Savarkar stood up for it ! He
thought it proper to record once again his protest against the
vivisection of India. So a Hindu Convention was held on
Augu.st 8, 1947, at Delhi. Savarkar went to Delhi by air.
This was his first air flight. Dr. N. B. Khare, the then Premier
of Alwar, was to preside over it and the Maharaja of Alwar,
a staunch Hindu and self-respecting ruler was to inaugurate
it. But owing to the treacherous revolt of the Meos in the
Alwar State for a Meostan, both of them could not come to
Delhi and so Savarkar presided over the Convention.

In his Presidential Address to the Convention Savarkar
exhorted the Hindus never to accept Pakistan just as they
never accepted the British Raj and asked them to continue
their struggle for Akhand Hindusthan. Savarkar warned the
Hindus that if they did not rise and awake to the real danger
ahead, there would be many more Pakistans hereafter. Indeed
he must have had before his mind’s eye some four crores of
Muslims still remaining in Hindusthan who rioted, agitated
and were responsible for the demand for vivisection of Hindu-

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 357

sthan in no small measure ! Savarkar further declared that
there sh mid be no rejoicings on the 15th of August 1947, since
the Motherland would be actually torn asunder on that day
and the results of the disintegration were likely to lead to
bitter feelings and ill-will.

The Working Committee of the Hindu Mahasabha thereafter
exhorted the Hindus not to celebrate the 15th of August 1947,
as Independence Day, in view of the untold sufferings that
had been inflicted on mi'^'ons of people in different parts of
the country by the orgy blunder, murder and conversion,
and the indiscreet arrests and detention of leaders and
workers amongst the Hindus in all parts of the country.

One point respecting the Herculean opposition Savarkar
sponsored to the creation of Pakistan needs to be noted. It
was the Hindu Mahasabha led by Savarkar that alone strove
to avert the vivisection of Hindusthan. Let it be recorded
that the Socialist party which then functioned in the Congress
kept a culpable silence at the time of such a historical, momen-
tous issue in the life of the nation and remained neutral in
the A.I.C.C. when the Congress passed the resolution conced-
ing the vivisection of India. The Ary a Samajists and the
R.S.S. remained mere passive spectatoi-s and refused co-
operation, official or otherwise, even in peaceful demon-
strations against the vivisection of the Motherland, as if
nothing had happened in the life of the nation to which they
pledged their blood, brains and bones morning, noon
and night !

Ill

The 15th of August 1947 came, and was celebrated by the
Congress! tes as a day of national rejoicing. And no doubt it
was a great day in the history of the world as it saw the birth
of the biggest Muslim Slate under the sun and as a great force
was released in Asia in the form of Indian Independence. The
Mahasabhaites hoisted only the Mahasabha Geruwa flag with
the Kripan and Kundalini to display the asserting will of the
Hindus. Savarkar hoisted the new tricolour flag of Free India
with the Dharma Chakra of Buddhism as well as the Geruwa

358 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

flag with Kripan and Kundalini ; one State Flag and iho nfher
a Symbol of Akhand Hindusthan.

Great must have been his exultation at the disappau^inre
of the Union Jack and the discomfiture of the Khadi
with its Charkha and the coming up of the nationnl Jiatr,
Through Savarkar, the Prince of the Indian revolutionaries,
thousands of martyrs must have saluted the Flag of Indian
Independence for which they had laid their Jives. In saluting
and flying the State Flag Savarkar showed his sense of and
love for democracy. To his perturbed followers he said tha.t
they should hoist the Bhagwa flag with the Kripan and
Kundalini as the State flag only after they could get it
approved by the whole nation in a democratic way. Till then
this new State Flag represented the Divided India and the
Geruwa flag with the Kripan and Kundalini the Akhand
Hindusthan and so he had hoisted both.

It may be remembered that Gandhiji did not approve the
State Flag of Free India adopted by the Constituent Assem-
bly ; for the Dharma-Chakra had replaced his pet Charkha
and the silk had replaced the rough Khadi. Gandhiji
expressed this in an article in the Harijan dated the 3rd
August 1947 and lamented that the Congress flag, i.e. the tri-
colour Khaddar flag with the Charkha on it had not become
the national flag and added that if the new flag of the Union
did not represent the Charkha and Khadi, it was valueless in
his opinion ! What a love for democracy ! Savarkar’s efforts
to replace the Charkha by a Chakra were not fruitless. In a
telegram to Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the Chairman of the Consti-
tuent Assembly, who happened to be the chairman of the Flag
Committee of the Constituent Assembly, Savarkar had
requested them to have at least a strip of the saffron colour
and a wheel-Chakra instead of the Charkha on the State Flag.

He did not expect the Constituent Assembly dominated by the
Congressites, to adopt the Geruwa flag with Kripan and
Kundalini on it as the State Flag. It may be recalled here
that Madame Cama of the Abhinava Bharat had unfurled a
tricolour flag as the flag of Indian Independence as early as
1907 at the Socialist Conference in Germany !

Yet another of Savarkarb warning that breakers were
ahead came true with a vengeance. Simultaneously with the

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 359

national rejoicings, a terrible wave of wholesale massacre and
brutality spread over the Punjab and Sind. Unprecedented
violence was let loose. Pakistan had not been established
without any gruesome immediate effect. The tidings that
came from the Punjab were grim and blood-curdling. The
massarre of men, women and children went on unabated.

Millions were uprooted from their native soil, their hearths,
their homes, torn from their dear ones and robbed of all their
possessions. Nobody was sure of the morrow. Burnt houses,
looted shop.s, broken skuils, smoking ruins, blood-smeared
corpses, and mutilated i.tdies scattered all over towns and
villages, spoke of the blood bath and barbarity unsurpassed
in other times and climes. The country rang with horror.

The visionary in Nehru was rudely shaken. He admitted
in his broadcast on August 19, 1947, that ‘ nearly the whole
of India celebrated the coming of Independence, but not so
the unhappy land of the five rivers in the Punjab.’ He also
said that ‘ there was sufficient disa.ster and sorrow, arson and
murder, looting and crime of all descriptions.’ Short-sighted
Congressites were fiddling while the West Punjab was burn-
ing and bleeding. Nehru appealed to the Hindus and Sikhs
of the West Punjab not to make mass migration, and he asked
the people to desist from individual retaliation. He also de-
clared that if it should be retaliation, it should be Government
retaliation, which meant war. Pandit Nehru was not far away
from the truth because in the upper half of India there was
terrific retaliation as a result of insufferable repercussions and
emotions evoked by the holocaust in the East and in the West.
During this crisis Pandit Nehru condemned with burning
hatred everything that had the appearance of Hindu Sangha-
tan. In a Delhi speech he declared that he would even resign
and fight out the Hindu Fascists who clamoured for a Hindu
State and he further said that he was sure that those Fascists
would go down the way the Hitlers and Mussolinis went.

Replying to Nehru on all these points, Savarkar said : ‘
“ What were the thousands of Hindu-Sikhs to do when faced
by an imminent danger of being massacred in cold blood,
looted, burnt alive, forcibly converted, in short, of being
exterminated as a racial and national being by the most

1 Free Hindusthan, Bombay, pp. 16-18 ; 69-71.

360 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

barbarous attacks of an organized, dangerousl3»^ armed and
fanatically hostile foe and especially when the State as such
was nowhere in evidence so effectively as to render any the
least protection to them ? While in the West Punjab the
dangerously armed Muslims in their thousands were parading
in the streets, in towns and cities and raising terror-striking
slogans ‘ Haske liya Pakistan, Marke lenge Hindusthan,’ and
were planning to capture the East Punjab and Delhi, the
Congressiies, observed Savarkar, were celebrating their
bloodless revolution brought about by the vivisection of India,
although the Hindu Sanghatanists kept shouting that danger
was ahead and that this was no time to rejoice when they were
stranded on the top of a volcano already in eruption. He
added : “ Under these circumstances what wonder is there
that millions of Hindu-Sikhs prompted by instinct of self-
preservation and animated by the spirit of Pan-Hindu con-
solidation rose in arms in the East Punjab, in Bharatpur, in
Alwar, in Patiala and in Delhi itself and responded to the
best of their might and means so furiously and effectively
as to checkmate the Muslim hoards from attempting an
invasion of the East Punjab, threw them on their defensive
and saved Delhi itself from being captured by the Muslims
concentrated there. If Panditji and his Congressite comrades
are still safe and secure in their seats, they owe it to this
brave fight which the Hindu Sanghatanist and Sikh forces
gave in the nick of time. And still it is he who unblushingly
comes forward to deliver to them a sermon on the exclusive
right of the State to retaliate. Had a Shivaji or a Ranjit Singh
been at the helm of the State, he could have demanded with
propriety that the people should leave the right of retaliation
in his hands alone. But when the puny Pandit tries to
demand it in the accent of Shivaji, it strikes as funny as it
would do if a pigmy standing on his tiptoes tried to rival a
giant in height.”

And as to the threats of resignation by Nehru, Savarkar
said that if the Government was handed over to the Sikh-
Hindu Sanghatanist coalition, a cabinet could be formed
which would be not only more efficient than the present

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 361

one, but also will prove to be absolutely indispensable to face
the stark realities as noted above.

As regards the misrepresentation of Hindu Raj by Nehru
and his hatred for everything that was Hindu, Savarkar said
it was a stunt on the part of Gandhist ministers, leaders and
pap>ers to cover their dismal and disastrous failure in protect-
ing the life, property and honour of our nation. Savarkar
proceeded: “The demand for the Hindu Raj, these pseudo-
nationalists say, is communal, stupid, medieval, theocratical,
a menace to the progres"^ of mankind itself ! But they con-
veniently refuse to tell us w hat they precisely mean by Hindu
Raj, before they characterize it in the above-mentioned vilify-
ing terms. Nevertheless, assuming for the sake of argument
that the demand for a Hindu State deserves this condemnation
on all these counts, may we ask them : was not the demand
for a Moslem State at least equally condemnable on these very
counts ? Did not the Moslems base their claims to own the
Pakistani Provinces on the ground that the Muslims consti-
tuted the major community predominating there ? ’’

Savarkar further replied to Nehru with equal force and
fire : “ But instead of fighting against that demand for a
Moslem Raj you actually abetted the crime of cutting inte-
grated India right into two halves directly on communal
lines which the Anglo-Muslim conspirators perpetrated and
handed over Pakistan to the Moslems so ceremoniously, with
such ease and grace as you would hand over a cup of tea to a
welcome guest ! With what face now can you vilify the
demand for a Hindu Raj on this very count even if it could
be said to possess all the above traits ? Savarkar goes on :
“ A Pathani or Nizami Muslim Raj is to Gandhi ji a cent per
cent Swaraj. But a Hindu Raj ! O no ! It would be com-
munal, fascist, anti-national and an anathema ! Savarkar
further observes : “You contend further that our country
and our State cannot be called Hindusthan and Hindu State
as some non-Hindu minorities too are citizens thereof. But
how is that in spite of the presence of the Hindus, Christians,
Parsees and other non-Muslim minorities in its territory all
of you and Gandhi ji in particular keep salaming and saluting

362 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

that newly carved out Muslim Rai as Pakistan which
avowedly and literally means a Holy Muslim Land, a Muslim
State ? Is it not a fact that almost all States and nations are
called after the names of what the League of Nations termed
‘ National Majority ’ predominating in each ? Nor have you
yourselves ever felt any qualm of conscience in recognizing
Baluchistan, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Turkastan or the
Tuxkish State as such in spite of the presence of non-Muslim
minorities there ? How is it then that the very mention of
the name of Hindusthan or the Hindu State alone takes your
breath out as if you were smitten by a snake-bite ? ”

As for the threat of Nehru that he would fight out those who
clamoured for Hindu Raj as Hindu Fascists, Savarkar
retorted : “ The Hindu Sanghatanists cannot be terrorized by
the threat of such carpet-knights as the Pandit and his clan.”
He concluded his historic reply to Pandit Nehru : “ The choice
therefore is not between two sets of personalities but between
two ideologies, not between Indian Raj and Hindu Raj but
between Muslim Raj and Hindu Raj, between Akhand Hindu-
sthan and Akhand Pakistan. The Hindu Sanghatanist ideo-
logy alone can, therefore, save our nation and re-establish
an Akhand Hindusthan from the Indus to the Seas.”

The Congress leaders in their zeal to carve out a secular
State, which is in fact a noble ideal, fell to de-Hinduising
Hindusthan. They denounced Hindu Raj, but brought about
a religious State, a theocratic State, Pakistan. They saluted
and blessed Pakistan, but cursed with burning hatred the
appellation Hindusthan. They started to speak of the people
by calling them Muslims and non-Muslims of India. Their
speeches, addresses, statements and official announcements
described and referred to the Muslims as Muslims and to all
others as the non-Muslims of India. So burning a hatred they
had even for the word ‘ Hindu ’ and the appellation Hindu-
sthan that they dropped out those appellations as if the Hindus
in their Homeland were a dying, vanishing race like the
twentieth century empires.

At a post-prayer meeting in Delhi on June 12, 1947, Gandhiji
told his audience that Pandit Nehru refused to call the non-

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 363

Pakistan areas as Hindusthan and Gandhiji further said :
“ The Muslim majority areas might call themselves Pakistan,
but the rest and the largest part of India need not call itself
Hindusthan.” Could un-Hindu nationalism go further ?
Savai’kar pitied this inferiority complex and the cowardly
attitude on the part of the Congress leaders. Savarkar never
said that he wanted to base the Hindu State on Plinduism.
The concept of Hindu Raj was not based on Hinduism but on
Hindutva. And Hindutva and Hinduism were two quite
different things. Ration.ii.sts Avould never say that Savarkar
would stand for a State m which a Shankaracharya would
be authorized to make laws and deal with justice. Is there
such a degraded man as will say that Savarkar ever said that
he wanted to deal with the so-called Depressed Classes and
measure the ideals governing man and woman with Manu’s
rod ? According to Savarkarism, the word Hindu connotes
nationality. You may be a Buddhist, a Jain, a Sikh or an
Arya Samajist by faith, but by nationality you are a Hindu.
The term Hindu State corresponds to the terms the German
State, Japanese State, Afghan State, Turkish State. You
gladly repeat the words Mu.slim State, Mogul rule, Pakistan,
Turkish State. Where is the harm if you call the Bharatiya
State as the Hindu State ? Moreover, Savarkar meant by
the word Hindu Rashtra, a State grown out of the historic
cultural background. The national majority after whom the
State is named must follow their bent, must grow according
to their nature and blood by reconciling their past with the
present, shaping their future in the light of science. But
Savarkar always insisted that none should hustle or terrorize
the national majority into shaping their present or future.

Why should Pandit Nehru and his colleagues decry this kind
of Hindu Ra.shtra in which every citizen will be equal in the
eyes of law ? Pandit Nehru and Gandhiji especially who
started their political careers with a Theocratic Movement,
the Khilafat, and ended it in creating a Theocratic State,
Pakistan, on the basis of religion should have any the least
objection to it. And at last Pandit Nehru declared at
Lucknow in October 1947 : “ Congress wanted to establish

a secular democratic State in the country. Naturally in such

364

SAVAPKAR AND HIS TIMES

a Slate the predominant culture and outlook vvoulrl b
governed by the great majority of the Hindus in the popuC
tion/^ But according to Savarkar the culture of the majority
in India was the culture of Rama^ Krishna, Kalidas, Vikram,
Bhavabhutu Pratap, Guru Govindsingh, Shivaji and
Vivekananda, and not the culture of TaimurJang, Mohamad of
Ghazni, Mohamad Ghori, Babar, Aurangzeb and Tipu !

While these controversies were going on, confusion,
fanaticism and retaliation were reigning supreme. It is
necessary to reveal here as briefly as possible the significance
of this insurmountable crisis as this was indirectly responsible
for Savarkar being involved in the most heinous trial.
Gandliist leaders proved to be unequal to the occasion and
historic necessities. People now realized that Gandhism was
an illusion. Gandhiji himself realized too late that what the
nation followed was not non-violence but passive resistance.
He expressed this at a meeting in Delhi. Nehru said that the
nation had to wade through ocean of blood and tears. Such
was the crisis and such were the times that people showed a
profound disbelief in and dislike of Gandhism which seemed till
yesterday the ruling belief of the majority. The blood, tears,
sighs and sorrow proved that Gandhism was a dreamland. The
situation was utterly volcanic and it disclosed that the whole
range of consequences was the outcome of those beliefs,
opinions and actions. People seemed now unwilling to
sacrifice their present ease or near convenience in the hope
of securing higher advantages for others and honour of
tomorrow. The magnitude of the issues and height of interests
involved was such that there was a stirring shock in the realm
of the national mind. Perturbed by the atrocities, imbecilities
and the terrific holocaust that marked the course of the period,
even the great Congress leaders were chilled in their political
beliefs ! They now realized that mere height of aim and
nobility of expression did not move the matter-of-fact world.

K. M. Munshi, who claimed to have followed the Mahatma,
while reviewing the situation in the Freedom Special of his
Social Welfare, observed : “ Last thirty-five years, we have

been brought up on a slogan : naturalness and inevitableness
of Hindu-Muslim unity. That this was a wishful thinking has

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 365

been prov<: d in Noakhali, Bihar, Rawalpindi — ^in a hundred
villages, by tons of thousands of men, women and children
fleeing for safety. The Muslim — a hard realist — ^knew and
exploited the hollowness of the slogans ; the Hindu cherishes
it still. Hindus love words and ideals.’' What a melancholy
epitaph on Gandhism by a Gandhist ! How fitting yet flagrant,
how frank yet ferocious, how realistic though belated ! The
terrific shock also evoked a spontaneous remark from Babu
Purushottamdas Tandon. Tandon declared while speaking at
a meeting in Bareilly that » landhiji’s doctrine of absolute non-
violence had proved to be useless and was greatly responsible
for the partiiion of India.

Even the Bharat Jyoii, a well-known English Weekly and a
strong spokesman of the Congress in Bombay, bewailed in its
editorial dated October 26, 1947, under the caption ‘ Barter
not Truth ’ : “ Today, Gandhiji is a living witness to the

failure of his political mission. His failure is the measure of
his departure from truth, in his implementation of truth.” The
editorial concludes : ‘‘ Gandhiji resisted partition of India,

but like Yudhishthira, by a play of words, secured the nation s
ratification of Partition ; he, like Yudhishthira, is witnessing
hell’s torments. Power of truth is great ; lie’s punishment is
greater. So, barter not, truth.”

In the meanwhile people who were filled with a sense and
anxiety for security spoke in terms of strife and survival. One
furious and reckless mob stoned Gandhiji’s residence at
Calcutta twenty-four hours before the dawn of freedom ! The
furious mob even shouted “ Gandhi, Go Back.” In Delhi,
Pandit Nehru and other Congress leaders were stunned to
hear later on at the time of Gandhiji’s last fast the slogans of
the angry crowds shouting ‘ Let Gandhi die The principle
of absolute non-violence had gone with the wind. People were
puzzled over the words and deeds of the Congress leaders.
India was fighting Pakistan in Kashmir not with the spinning
wheel or with cotton balls, but with deadly bullets and des-
tructive bombs. Gandhiji’s prayer-meetings were now-a-days
abandoned, disturbed, heckled and routed. Pickets had to be
posted at Gandhi’s residence in Delhi to protect Gandhiji, the
symbol of non-violence. C.I.D. in plain dress guarded
Gandhiji’s post-prayer meetings. Savarkar had nothing to

3S6 SAVARKAR AN0 HIS TIMES

do with these violent mob demonstrations nor with the
newspapers’ smashing criticism of Gandhism. That was the
growing opinion in the minds of the people and the colurrtns
of the Congress press. Not that the people were in a mood
to listen to Savarkar. There was confusion, indecision and
misjudgment of the issues in the minds of the people and their
leaders and their press.

And such a crisis was capped by Gandhiji’s famous fast
which he started on January 13, 1948, for the reinstatement of
the Muslims in their houses at Delhi, for the restoration of dese-
crated mosques to their former use and for other five reasons,
and as a sequel the Government of India led by Congressmen
was forced to pay Pakistan rupees fifty-five crores which had
been loudly decried and refused. The Modern Reinew a
Calcutta monthly, famous for its balanced views all over the
world, began its editorial notes in its issue of January 1948
with a pertinent question : “ The time has come when our
trusted leaders, including the Father of the Nation, have to be
asked for a clear reply to a plain question. Where does the
Hindu of the Indian Union stand today and what does freedom
mean for him ? Does he possess along with others the
democratic birth-rights by which a State has to be ruled and
administered for the greatest good for the majority, or is he
there merely to serve as so much fuel for a burnt sacrifice —
to be used for “ conscience-fodder,” so to say, by his leaders,
just as the totalitarian Fuehrer used his people as cannon-
fodder ? ” The Review proceeds : “ It is the Hindu who did

by far most of the fighting for liberty and offered by far the
vastly greater part of the sacrifices. Then why should his
interests be sacrificed at every emotional impulse of his elders
and leaders ? ” The note puts a query : “ A state cannot be

run on the lines of a Passion-play, and what would avail the
working of a miracle in the minds of the recalcitrant infinitesi-
mal minority, if thereby the trust of the hundreds of millions
of the majority be betrayed ? ” Referring to the fast of
Gandhiji, the Modem Review concluded its note in a grave
judgment : “ Mahatmaji’s fast will, we are sure, attain its

object for the time being but the results would be futile and
disastrous in the long run, unless Pakistanis mend their ways.
Indeed, this fast will enhance communal bitterness a

FROM PARITY TO PAKISTAN 367

thousandfold on this side when the people realize the futility
of their sacrifices, and would make the ultimate and inevitable
clash horrible and catastrophic beyond all measure, unless
Mahatmaji can work his miracle in Pakistan as well.”

And in the midst of such an atmosphere of extreme gloom,
confusion and disaster, Nathuram Vinayak Godse shot
Gandhiji with a revolver while Gandhiji was going to the
prayer ground in the compound of Birla House at Delhi in
the evening at 5-30 on Friday, January 30, 1948.

CHAPTER XX

The Red Fort Ordeal and After

With the shots fired by Nathuram Vinayak Godse
disappeared one of the greatest political figures from the stage
of world politics. The act was committed in broad daylight,
in a public place, in the sight of a multitude by a man dressed
in khaki bush jacket and blue trousers. The newspapers
described him as a batchelor of thirty-seven with medium
height, fair skin, square jaws, a resolute and sober face, serious
flickering eyes, a high forehead, close-cropped hair, all giving
the appearance of a man of serious purpose.

The news of the assassination of Gandhi ji spread like wild
fire. It was indeed tragic, tearing and terrific. A wave of
shock and grief passed over the whole country like an earth-
quake. Shops were slammed in, flags lowered, cinema shows
cancelled. Vivisected and broken-hearted Mother India shed
piteous tears for her great son, as does a mother for her son
despite her own malady.

Depressed looked the vrhole world for a while. With wide
mouth it paid its fitting tributes to the memory of the great
man. The Indian minorities were distressed. The Muslims
said they were orphaned. The Anglo-Indians bemoaned the
loss as never before. The Bohra head priest grieved, and the
Afghan Sai'dars were moved.

The reaction of this terrific act on the Hindu Mahasabha
and the R.S.S. was too severe and drastic. In his early youth
Godse was a worker of the R.S.S. and later, he was a
prominent member of the All-India Committee of the Hindu
Mahasabha. He was a well-known journalist in Maharashtra
and the editor of a Marathi Daily, the Agrani , — the Leader —
changed to a new name, the Hindu Rashtra at a later stage.
Better known as Pandit Nathuram Godse, this editor was a
staunch Savarkarite, and was fairly known as the vanguard
and lieutenant of Savarkar. But when the vivisection of
Mother India was declared as a settled fact, in his
extreme love for the Hindu Nation, Nathuram Godse

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 369

repudiated even the saner leadership of Savarkar. Naturally,
the attention of the hooligans was riveted upon men and institu-
tions of his erstwhile association in Maharashtra. Furious
crowds pulled down and burnt Hindu Sabha flags, destroyed
Local and District Hindu Sabha offices, burnt printing houses
and studios belonging to the Hindu Sabha leaders, attacked
persons of Hindu Sabha persuasion and particularly persons
from the clan of Godse ; shops and houses of the Hindu
Sanghatanists were in flames and at some places even personal
and party enmity under ihis plea or that pretext Was vented
on men, women and chiidren. And all this in the name of
Gandhiji whom they worshipped as the embodiment of peace,
mercy, truth and non-violence !

Men of lesser mettle promptly declared their disassociation
from the Hindu Mahasabha. Some office-bearers of Local or
District Hindu Sabhas resigned and severed their connections
with the Hindu Mahasabha. A dusk to dawn curfew was
enforced in Poona, the city from which Nathuram Godse
hailed. Wrath was on its round, malice on its wings, and
political revenge on its prowl. In the Deccan States the long-
awaiting disgruntled souls of some non-Brahmins saw their
opportunity, and they poured out the vials of their vengeance
in the name of Gandhiji on Brahmins in particular and the
Hindu Sanghatanists in general, who happened to be
sympathizers, workers or leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha.
There was trouble and tension in a few cities between the Hindu
Sabhaites and the R.S.S. on one side and the violent crowds
of Gandhian persuasion on the other ; but the havoc wrought
by the assaults committed by interested or incited gangs
especially in the States of Kolhapur, Sangli and Miraj was
terrific, unprecedented and unparalleled. There was hardly
any bloodshed or burning incident in other Provinces, but
the massacre of a whole family consisting of an old man, his
son and his grandson for the fault of bearing the same
surname as Godse and the atrocities, arson and looting
committed in the name of Gandhiji in Maharashtra were so
dastardly and ghastly that these dark deeds of the so-called
followers of Gandhiji would put the inhuman crimes
committed by the furious followers of Robespierre into the
shade. Had it not been for the stern and efficient handling of
24

370 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

the situation by Sri Morarji Desai, the Home Minister,
Government of Bombay, the rioters and looters would have
turned Maharashtra into a veritable graveyard.

And what about the first and foremost Hindu Sabhaite,
Savarkar ? On the morning of Saturday, January 31, 1948,
at about 10, fury was let loose in many parts of the city of
Bombay, which destroyed Hindu Sabha offices, burnt their
property, attacked the residences of the Hindu Sabha leaders
and workers, and stormed and attacked the house of Savarkar
known as Savarkar Sadan. The ringleaders of this furious
mob of about 500 strong broke into Savarkar’s house through
a door on the rear side. They swept down into the compart-
ments on the ground floor occupied by Bhide Guruji, a former
Secretary to Savarkar, a Hindu Sabha leader of note, and
editor of an English Weekly, the Free Hindusthan. This was
the left-hand side block on the ground floor of the one-storeyed
house of Savarkar. Savarkar was in his bedroom on the first
floor. He knew what the mob meant towards him. In his
youth, he had faced such wild drunken mobs in London streets
when he was agitating for Indian Independence. The ring-
leaders of the mob were running amuck on the ground floor.
But the presence of mind of a Savarkarite, who was present
at the moment, hoodwinked them and in the meantime the
police arrived on the scene and a bloody scene was averted.

But what was the state on the first floor during this hour of
attack ? It is characteristic of Savarkar that he keeps quiet,
cool and collected in times of grave dangers. His courage
rises with difficulties. Armed with courage and available
legitimate weapons in his hands, Savarkar stood in his bed-
room, his wife standing by his side. He asked his son Vishwas
to seek safety somewhere while he defended the house. But
true to his blood the young boy refused to run away from the
scene and save his life. This was the time for Vishwas to
show his mettle. In front of his father, on the threshold of
the bedroom stood the young boy prepared to face the mob,
determined to protect his father and to die in the action if
necessary. Had Savarkar’s bodyguard Appa Kassar been
present on the scene, crimson would have been the compound
of Savarkar’s house. But he was already arrested along with
Gajananrao Damle, personal secretary to Savarkar, in the

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 371

early hours of Saturday, eight hours after the assassination of
Gandhiji.

Defeated in its bloodthirsty designs, the mob set upon the
residence of Dr. Narayanrao Savarkar in the same locality.
Dr. Savarkar was stoned till he fell down in a pool of blood.
He suffered severe head injuries and was admitted to hospital,
and his family was removed to a distant place.

Nathuram Godse’s lieutenantship was bound to recoil upon
Savarkar. A thorough search was made of Savarkar’s house
on January 31. Savarkai kept himself in his bedroom and
the police minutely seari he<{ his residence. A police officer
asked Savarkar to accompany him to a place of safety.
Savarkar flatly refused to do so and told the officer that his
person would carry unrest and agitation wherever he went.
He told the police officer that he would not move an inch, and
added that two armed guards were enough to scare away the
mob ; but if the pohce did not want to do so, then, said he, he
was ready to lay down his life for his principles. Savarkar
also issued a statement on January 31, in which he said that
the news of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi was too
shocking and sudden and he appealed to the people to stand
by the Central Government of Free India and maintain order
in the country.

From February 1 to February 5 throughout the country
there was a general round-up of the Hindu Sabha leaders and
workers. The R.S.S. was outlawed and its leaders and workers
were also arrested. Even Sri R. K. Tatnis, the famous editor
of the well-known Marathi Weekly, the Vividhavritta,
Sri Jamnadas Mehta and Sri K. N. Dharap were put behind
the bars though they had no active connection with the Hindu
Mahasabha or the R.S.S. But Tatnis and Mehta had fearlessly
opposed Gandhiji and the Congress on the question of
Pakistan, and Dharap was a legal celebrity of Mahasabha
persuasion. All the three were, however, set at liberty by the
High Court of Bombay on Habeas Corpus apphcations on
their behalf. Excepting L. B. Bhopatkar, President of the All-
India Hindu Mahasabha, Sri G. V. Ketkar, Editor Kesari and
Mahratta, Poona, and Sri R. N. Mandlik, President of the
Maharashtra Provincial Hindu Sabha and Member of the
Bombay Legislative Council, all prominent Maiharashtrian

S^VAaKAR AND HIS TIMES

372

Badu SsJoSaa kadeis were put in jail. The total number of
pwsons attested in this general round-up in aU the Provinces
and the States was said to have exceeded 25 , 000 . Such a
huge round-up for a single act was never witnessed in India
at any other time in her history !

On the night of February 4, the police officers got Savarkar
medically examined. The doctor declared that Savarkar was
keeping dt, though Savarkar had been suffering throughout
the previous year from low fever and heart-ailment, and was
even at that time running temperature. A few hours after
this, in the early hours of February 5, came a police van to
Savarkar Sadan. Savarkar was told that he was placed under
arrest under the Bombay Public Security Measures Act. He
nodded assent and said that before entering the van he desired
to go to the lavatory. The officers hesitated. Savarkar smiled
and said ; “ Do not be afraid. I am now an old man and

you should not fear a repetition of Marseilles, nor is there any
occasion for it.” The officer inspected the W.C. after Savarkar
came out of it, but could find nothing.

All sensible persons condemned the act of assassination. And
a few hours before his arrest, Savarkar too had issued another
statement endorsing the joint statement of Bhopatkar and
some other Members of the Working Committee of the Hindu
Mahasabha regarding ‘ the gruesome assassination of Mahatma
Gandhi ’ and said, “ I, too, as one of the Vice-Presidents of the
Hindu Mahasabha subscribe to their feeling and condemn
unequivocally such fatricidal crimes whether they are
perpetrated by the individual frenzy or mob fury.” Savarkar
concluded his statement with a warning : “ Let every

patriotic citizen set to his heart the stem warning which
History utters that a successful national revolution and a
newly-bom national State can have no worse enemy than a
fatricidal civil war, especially so when it is encompassed from
outside by alien hostility.”

Savarkar was lodged in the Arthur Road Jail, Bombay.
Now some of the local Congress-minded papers assumed the
role of justice, usurped the rights of the Court and wickedly
enough described Savarkar as the brain behind the murder of
Gandhiji. Some openly flashed the news that Damle and
Kasar had a hand in the plot. And all this when the whole

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER

373

affair as to how far Savarkar was the brain, Apie the brawn,

and Godse the heart and hand was being investigated by the

police.

Tlie police officers led a blitz in a group on Savarkar, their
combined wily and wild genius being at grips with the genius
of Savarkar. Savarkar was calm and collected. XAke IDe V aVera,
the country for the independence of which, he had striven and
sacrificed his life for fifty long years, threw ham into \aiV
after the birth of a Free State. Savarkar was naturally over-
whelmed with these feelings He declined to avail himself of
the facility of home food. No interview with him was allowed
to his wife or his only son till March 23, and nothing was
heard or known about him by the public except the volcano
of obloquy let loose by hostile journals of Congress persuasion.

One man with intrepid courage and devotional vigilance
devoted himself to the defence of Savarkar amidst the all-
round erupting volcano. That man was Sri S. V. Deodhar,
a local advocate of Bombay. He interviewed Savarkar on
February 6 and took his instructions. For a long time
Savarkar was not charged with any speciftc offence. But on
March 11, 1948, Savarkar was again placed under arrest in
the Arthur Road Jail by the Delhi Police under a warrant
from the Delhi Presidency Magistrate on a charge of being
one of the conspirators in the a.ssassination of Gandhiji. When
Savarkar was produced before the Chief Presidency
Magistrate, Bombay, for a further remand, the daring advocate
moved an application for bail, but it was refused. Deodhar,
however, secured permission for Savarkar’s wife and son to
interview him, and accordingly they saw him in jail for the
first time on March 24. It was through the efforts of Deodhar
that Savarkar could execute a general power of attorney in
favour of his son, thus facilitating the arrangement of funds
for his household affairs and for his defence. Savarkar was
now in full control of every nerve. On May 18 he made an
important affidavit before the Chief Presidency Magistrate,
Bombay, regarding a group photograph that was taken by the
police with Savarkar in the centre and Godse and Apte on
either side together with the other alleged conspirators who
had been arrested on different dates in the first half of
February and brought to Bombay for investigation purposes.

374 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

By now tho Icsdcr and famous advocate in Bhopatkar was
on the move with all his legal acumen and with all his moral
courage. Sri Mandlik also was bringing the issue of Savarkar^s
arrest to the forefront. At the time of the passing of the Budget,
Mandlik severely criticized the Bombay Government in the
Bombay Legislative Council for denying Savarkar even the
freedom of interview with his family and legal counsels. On
April 3 Mandlik asked the Home Minister, Sri Morarji Desai,
as to why the confiscated property of the Savarkars was not
returned to Savarkar in appreciation of his past services in
the cause of Indian Independence, as was done in the case of
other patriotic sufferers of Congress persuasion of even
recent period. The Home Minister replied that the Govern-
ment did not propose to return the property to Savarkar and
on a supplementary question, he added sarcastically, though
Savarkar’s case was now sub jiidice, that Savarkar’s present
disservice was more than his past service. Upon this Mandlik
sprang up and asked the Home Minister to define Savarkar’s
‘ present ’ disservice to which the Home Minister had referred ;
but there was no reply. Savarkar’s must be a rare case, a
case of one of the greatest patriots under the sun wherein the
property confiscated for his struggle for national freedom was
not returned to the patriot even after the nation had become
free. Men of lesser patriotism and later-day struggle were
given back their confiscated properties by the Congress
Ministries ; but it seemed as if the Congressmen in the
Ministry, who were themselves not politically born nor were
the makers of their Ministries out of their swaddling clothes
when Savarkar stamped the pages of world history with the
cry of Indian Independence, were not even desirous of doing
Savarkar bare justice, let alone honouring the greatest patriot
of our day.

II

In the meantime, news appeared in the Times of India,
Bombay, that Government were weighing the evidence
regarding Savarkar’s complicity in the plot. After three
months and a half, the preliminaries were completed. And
at last, for want of proper legal opinion, the Government of

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTF. R 375

India were led to rope in Savarkar, one of the greatest political
figures for all times, with the other alleged conspirators. A
notification in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated May
15, 1948, declared the names of the nine accused among whom
flashed the name of Savarkar as the eighth accused. The
notification also announced that Sri Atma Charan, I.C.S. was
appointed a Special Judge to try the case in the historic Red
Fort at Delhi. The trial was expected to begin towards the
end of May 1948.

The tide of mob violence almost ebbed in April 1948. But
the atmosphere was still full of dread. The Public Security
Measures Act held its sway all over the Province. The defence
of Savarkar was the uppermost thought for his family and
the Mahasabha leaders of Maharashtra. The nerve of the Hindu
Mahasabha leaders in Maharashtra did not give way. History
has witnessed that in a great crisis, Maharashtrian leadership
keeps its nerve and mind. So was it proved during the historic
days of Rajarara and post-Panipat period. Bhopatkar,
Ketkar and Mandlik rose to keep up the traditional spirit.
Sri Jamnadas Mehta, who had played an important role in
effecting Savarkar ’s release in 1937, rose to the occasion and
played a very effective role in this trial also ! The part
Sri Gajananrao Ketkar played with his colleagues in .solving
the deadlock regarding Savarkar’s defence was as skilful and
courageous as it was spirited and masterly. It was through
his qualities of head and heart that the issue of the Defence
Fund was brought to the forefront so that the Defence
Fund was volunteered even by farmers, villagers and students
in instalments of rupee one or two amounting to a lakh in
the end. Hindu Sanghatanists in Bengal, Punjab, Madras and
other Provinces, too, at a later stage joined the Defence Com-
mittee in collecting the Defence Fund as a token of moral
support.

Just before the commencement of the trial, all the accused,
who were then in Bombay, were taken to Delhi on May 24.
Savarkar was alone taken to Delhi the next day by air,
accompanied by two medical experts and oxygen tubes. All
the accused were lodged in a specially selected part of the
Red Fort and it was declared to be a prison. It was also
declared that the Court would hold its sittings in a hall in the

376 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

upper storey of a building in the Red Fort, the famous Fort
where the Moguls held trials and where recently the I.N.A.
leaders were tried. The Court was well furnished and
arrangements for accommodation of the Court visitors and for
the accused were .specially made. The Court room was fitted
with microphones for making the proceedings audible.
Admission to the court was regulated by pa.s.ses available on
production of a certificate of fitness from a Magistrate or a
Gazetted Officer. Passes were valid for one daj' only and
visitors and even counsels were liable to be searched at the
gate. The Court and its surroundings wei'e guarded by police
and military force.

The trial opened at 10 a.m. on May 27, 1948, the day on
which Savarkar completed his fateful sixty-fifth year ! Sri C.
K. Daphtary, Advocate-General, Bombay, led the prosecution
and was assisted by four other counsels. Sri L. B. Bhopatkar,
President of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha, an eminent
author of many Law Books and a legal celebrity, led the
Defence and represented Savarkar, accused No. 8. The
principal accused, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, was represented
by Sri V. V. Oak, Bar-at-law, Bombay ; Narayan D. Apte
was represented by K. H. Mengle ; Vishnu R. Karkare by N.
D. Dange, Bombay ; Madanlal K. Pahwa by B. B. Banerji,
Delhi, Shankar Kistaya by H. R. Metha (Government) ; Gopal
Godse by M. B. Maniar and Dr. Parchiure by P. L. Inamdar,
Gwalior. Sri G. K. Dua and Sri M. B. Maniar helped Dange
and Inamdar and Sri Jamnadas Mehta, Lala Ganpat Rai,
Delhi, Sri K. L. Bhopatkar, Poona, Sri J. P. Mitter, Calcutta,
and Sri N. P. Aiyar, Madras, assisted Bhopatkar during the
trial in the defence of Savarkar, and at the time of arguments
Sri P. R. Das, brother of Deshbandhu Das, and a retired
High Court Judge, Patna, argued the case for Savarkar. The
President of the Hindu Mahasabha was defending its former
President Savarkar. Bhopatkar was then seventy and had
to forego a lucrative practice at the Poona Bar for months.
Political reactions to his brave defence of Savarkar were not
without strain. A lesser man would have gone down in
standing for such a daring defence which was nothing less
than an opposition and resistance to a powerful unfavourable
current then in its meridian in the country.

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 377

Out of the twelve persons cited in the charge sheet, the first
nine were produced on the first day, the remaining three,
Gangadhar Dandvate, Gangadhar Jadhav and Suryadeo
Sharnia were stated to have absconded. When the trial
opened, Savarkar looked sober, self-collected, but pale and
physically pulled down ; Godse, the central figure, wore a
scowl ; Apte, Karkare, Mandanlal, Badge, Gopal Godse,
Kistaya and Dr. Parchure were in good spirits and freely
talked with each other in il •, dock. On the first day the Court
acceded to the Chief Defer;',e Counsel's request for a chair to
be provided for Savarkar in the dock. Then deciding a legal
point raised by Bhopatkar, the judge said that the trial would
be treated as if the accused had already been committed to
Sessions. The Court met again on June 3 to consider the
timings of the sittings, the language of the proceedings, etc.,
and adjourned to June 22, 1948.

In the meanwhile, the Bombay Public Security Measures
Act was made applicable by the Central Government to the
Province of Delhi on June 2, 1948, under the provisions of the
Delhi Laws Act of 1912 and came into force with effect from
June 13, 1947. It was declared on June 14, 1948, that the
Special Court at Delhi constituted under sections 10 and 11 of
the Bombay Public Security Measures Act as extended to the
Province of Delhi was empowered to tender pardon to an
accused under a special ordinance XIV of 1948. Accordingly
Digambar Badge was tendered the King’s pardon on June 21,
and Badge turned approver in the case.

On June 22 the trial resumed hearing in the Red Fort. The
Chief Prosecution Counsel, Sri Daphtary, in his opening
speech charged all the eight accused in the dock with
conspiracy, murder and offences under the Arms Act and
Explosive Substances Act. The story of the prosecution was
that Nathuram Godse was the tool, Apte the brain and
Savarkar was the Guru and guide behind the murder of
Gandhiji. The prosecution stated that Savarkar was a very
well-known name, a leader of a particular line of thought and
President for a considerable period of the Hindu Mahasabha.
The prosecution further said that his books were numerous
and vigorous and were the text books for persons of certain
views and thought and some of those books were published

378 SAVABKAR AND HIS TIMES

by Nathuram Godse and Apte. The Prosecution Chief added :
“ It has been well known that he has been no lover, to put it
mildly, of either non-violence or of any policy of favouring
the Muslim Party.” The Chief of the Prosecution concluded :
“ Evidence is sufficient to prove not only that he had
knowledge of what was going to be done, but that it could not
have been done except with his complicity.”

After the charges were read out and explained to the
accused, all the accused pleaded ‘ not guilty ’ and claimed to
be tried.

The recording of the prosecution evidence began on June
24, and continued till November 6. During the course of his
deposition the approver Badge told the court that he had
accompanied Apte and Godse to Savarkar Sadan, Bombay,
on 14 January 1948, that Godse and Apte went inside with a
bag containing the stuff leaving him outside the compound,
and returned 5-10 minutes later with the bag containing the
stuff. The approver further said in his evidence that on
January 15, 1948, Apte asked him in the compound of Dixitji
Maharaj, Bombay, whether he was prepared to accompany
him (Apte) to Delhi and told the approver that Tatyarao
(Savarkar) had decided that Gandhiji, Nehru and Suhrawardy
should be finished and had entrusted that work to them. The
approver also told the Court that on a suggestion from
Nathuram Godse, Godse, Apte and Badge had been to
Savarkar Sadan on January 17, 1948, to take the last Darshun
of Savarkar and while be was sitting in the room on the
ground floor of the house, he heard Savarkar saying to Godse
and Apte who were coming downstairs, “ Be successful and
come.” On their way back, Apte told the approver, so
went the story of the approver, that (Tatyarao) Savarkar had
predicted that Gandhiji’s hundred years were over and that
there was no doubt that their work would be successfully
finished. The approver said that he accompanied Apte and
Godse to Delhi because Apte told him that it was Savarkar’s
command. It seemed this was all the prosecution evidence
against Savarkar. Badge was subjected to a gruelling cross-
examination by Sri L. B. Bhopatkar when the approver said
that he regarded Savarkar not only as the leader of the
Hindus, but also God incarnate (Devata). He also said that

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 379

Savarkar’s birthday was celebrated every year as Jayanti Day
like Shiva Jayanti and Krishna Jayanti and that he had seen
Savarkar only once in 1943. Badge admitted that Bhide
Guruji and Gajananrao Damle also resided on the ground
floor of Savarkar Sadan.

Out of the few other prosecution witnesses produced to
prove Savarkar’s complicity m the plot, Miss Shantabai B.
Modak, Maharashtrian ire.ss, who had given a lift to
Nathuram Godse and Nara n Apte and dropped them near
by Savarkar Sadan, on January 14, admitted when cross-
examined by Sri Oak that she did not see Apte and Godse
entering the compound of Savarkar Sadan. The story of
another prosecution witness. Prof. J. C. Jain, Bombay, was
that Madanlal Pahwa, who met the professor before the
assassination of Gandhiji, had told the Professor that Savarkar
had patted him on the back for his work in the Refugee Camp
and said ‘ carry on ’. The Home Minister of Bombay,
Sri Morarji Desai, and one Angad Singh told the story as
related to them by Prof. Jain. As far as Savarkar was
concerned, there was no evidence against him except the
alleged uncorroborated talk of this Madanlal with Savarkar
in all these three depositions. The taxi-driver said in his
evidence that he had taken Godse, Apte, Badge and Kistaya
to Shivaji Park, Dadar, but he did not know the name of the
owner of the house into which Godse, Apte and Badge went.
The story of the trunk-phone call from the Hindu Mahasabha
Bhavan, New Delhi, to Savarkar Sadan, Bombay, was also
narrated by prosecution witnesses. But the call was not
meant for the inmates of Savarkar Sadan and so that point
was also a failure.

Ill

After the examination and cross-examination of 149 prosecu-
tion witnesses in all, the statements of the accused were heard.
On November 8 Nathuram Godse submitted his state-
ment in which he frankly admitted that he fired three shots
at Gandhiji whom he considered to be the father of Pakistan.
Godse and Apte both denied that they had either seen
Savarkar or entered the compound of his house as alleged by

380 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

the prosecution. Immediately, on the next day, Godse’s
92-page statement was banned by the Central Government.
Madanlal denied having seen Savarkar at all as alleged by the
prosecution. Kistaya also stated that it was true that
Nathuram Godse, Apte and Badge had been to a certain
house in Shivaji Park locality, but he added that he did not
know to whom the house belonged, nor was it true what the
approver told that he (Kistaya) accompanied them to that
house ; as in fact he did not alight from the car when Badge
and others got down and went somewhere in the locality.

On November 20 Savarkar read his 52-page statement in
which he said he did not commit any of the offences with
which he was charged, nor had he any reason to do so. He
solemnly asserted that he was never a party to any agreement
or conspiracy as alleged by the prosecution, nor had he any
knowledge of any such criminal design.

Savarkar proceeded : “ Badge, the approver, alleges that

I (Savarkar) had decided that Gandhiji, Nehru and
Suhrawardy .should be finished. Apte and Godse both deny
that they ever told it to Badge and they were never told by
me any such things as alleged. There is absolutely no
evidence to corroborate Badge’s allegation. The first allega-
tion of Badge is thus not only a hearsay, but an uncorrobo-
rated hearsay.”

Savarkar added that as regards the second sentence which
Badge said he had personally heard him (Savarkar) saying
to Apte and Godse, “ be successful and come back,” it was
only an inference that it might have been in connection with
the conspiracy. Moreover, Apte and Godse, continued
Savarkar, both asserted that the story of the visit of the three
to his house and the allegation of his having uttered that
sentence was but a fabrication and totally false. “ Taking for
granted,” stated Savarkar, “ that Badge himself is telling the
truth when he says Apte told him that sentence, the question
still remains whether what Apte told Badge was true or false.
There was no evidence to show that I had ever told Apte to
finish Gandhiji, Nehru and Suhrawardy. Apte might have
invented this wicked lie to exploit my moral influence on
Hindu Sanghatanists for his own purpose.” Savarkar further

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 381

said that he had never predicted that Gandhiji's hundred years
were over, to Apte or to anyone else.

Detailing his personal life and political line of thought
since 1908, he narrated his association with Gandhiji since
1908 and he read pertinent extracts from his public statements
issued from time to time on the arrest of Gandliiji and Nehru,
regarding the murderous attack on Jinnah and pertaining to
the sad death of Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi. He also briefly
outlined the object of the Hindu Mahasabha of which he was
President successively for seven years.

He then referred to the fateful events in 1947 and said : “ I

had been foremost in leading the movement against the vivi*-
section of India. But in the year 1947 our Motherland was
at last divided. However, although Pakistan came into
existence yet to counterbalance that loss, by far the larger
part of Hindusthan succeeded in achieving its freedom from
foreign domination.” And when Savarkar came to the point
of the vivisection of his Motherland, tears rolled down his
cheeks and his voice was choked as he finished the sentence :
“The fight for political independence in which as a soldier I
too had fought, suffered and sacrificed for the last fifty years
in no measure less than any other patriotic leader in my
generation, was at last won and a free and independent State
was born. I felt myself blessed to have survived to see my
country free.” He wiped his tears with his handkerchief and
continued to read his statement in a low voice. The news-
papers flashed the moving atmosphere of the court in these
words : “ Every one in the court seemed to share the emotions
that overwhelmed the Hindu Sabha leader. The whole court
was in pin-drop silence.”

Savarkar then defined his attitude towards the Central
Government. He observed : “ No doubt a part of the Mission
remained unaccomplished, but we had not renounced our
ambition to restore once more the integrity of our Motherland
from the Indus to the Seas. For the realization of this
ambition too it was imperative to consolidate that which we
had already won. With this end in view I tried to impress
on the public mind that first of all the Central Government
must be rendered strong whatever party may happen to lead
it. Any change in that lead however desirahle^ should be

382 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

effected by constitutional means alone, for any act of violence
or civil strife inside our camp was bound to endanger the
state. Revolutionary mentality, which was inevitable and
justifiable while we were struggling against an alien and
armed oppression, must be instantly changed into a constitu-
tional one if we wanted to save our State from dangerous
party-strifes and civil wars. With this motto I wished that
the two leading organizations, the Congress and the Maha-
sabha, which were in fact coming very close to each other,
should form a common front and strengthen the hands of the
Central Government of our State. To that end I accepted the
new National Flag. Though ill, I went to preside over the
All-Party Hindu Conference at Delhi and attended the
Mahasabha Working Committee. The majority of the veteran
leaders of the Mahasabha as well as some foremost Congressite
leaders had also been striving to form such a common front
in co-operation with me. The Mahasabha Working Committee
passed a resolution to back up the Central Government.
Dr, S. P. Mookerji, the Mahasabha leader, was already
included in the Central Ministry and the step was appreciated
by all of us.”

As regcirds the deposition of other witnesses in reference
to him, Savarkar said that he did not know Madanlal, neither
had he met him, nor had he any conversation with him at any
time whatsoever, and since the evidence of Professor Jain,
Angad Singh and Sri Morarji Desai was hearsay testimony,
he pleaded that it should be excluded entirely from considera-
tion. He pointed out that Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte
were men of independent nature as was revealed by the
approver and they were not to be led by the nose. He also
respectfully stated before the court : “ Does it not often

happen that some of the followers who actually try to exploit
the moral influence of the leaders to further their activities
which the leader had never sanctioned ? In 1942, in the
‘ Quit India Movement ’ some leading workers, who had been
close associates of Gandhiji as Congressmen and respected
him, resorted to underground violence. I am not concerned
here with the question whether such an underground move-
ment against a foreign domination was or was not justifled.
It is enough to say that Mahatma Gandhi condemned all

383

red fort ordeal and after

underground violence. But masses resorted under the lead of
those workers to arson, sabotage and bloodshed, shouting all
the while ‘ Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai ^ But even the British
Government did not put Gandhiji in the dock for their crime
simply because the masses respected him and were doing those
very criminal acts and shouting ‘ Gandhiji ki Jai ’ and there-
fore they must have had consulted him/’

In the end, Savarkar pleaded that since not a word had been
found to incriminate him in the 10,000 letters which the prose-
cution had seized from his liouse and since Badge’s allegations
were uncorroborated hearsay and uncorroborated inference,
he prayed the judge to acquit him without the least blemish
on his character and order him to be released forthwith.

The accused were then asked whether they meant to adduce
evidence in defence. All of them declined to adduce evidence
in rebuttal of the prosecution evidence or in support of the
statements made by them.

After the statements of the eight accused were recorded, the
counsels’ arguments were heard from December 1 to Decem-
ber 30, 1948. Nathuram Godse argued his case himself for
about three days and laid stress on the point that it was a
cold-blooded act of his own and was committed not in con-
sultation or in conspiracy with anybody else and as he had
shown no mercy to the man whom he had killed, he concluded,
he did not want the court to show any mercy to himself.
Sri Mengle argued the case on behalf of Apte, Dange for
Karkare, B. Banerji for Madanlal, Mehta for Kistaya and
Inamdar for Gopal Godse and Dr. Parchure. Sri P. R. Das,
a retired High Court Judge from Patna and brother of
Deshbandhu C. R. Das, volunteered his services for the defence
of Savarkar and argued the case in a powerful and masterful
manner for Savarkar in particular and as regards the point
of conspiracy in general. Sure of ultimate success. Das con-
cluded that he did not doubt as to what would be the decision
of the court regarding his client. He emphasized that he ex-
pected a clean acquittal for Savarkar without blemish on his
character. It was a tribute to the broad-mindedness of Sri
L. B. Bhopatkar, the Chief Defence Counsel, that although
in no way unequal to the occasion in his legal acumen, he
made sure of the acquittal of Savarkar, the only object of his

384 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

heart and pride by adding strength and influence to the
defence of Savarkar through his masterly and thorough cross-
examination of the prosecution witnesses and then by putting
forth the arguments through the legal genius of Sri P. R. Das.

At last after eighty-four sittings spread over seven long
months, the day of judgment dawned on February 10, 1949.
Exactly at 11 a.m. the Special Judge, Sri Atma Charan, com-
menced to deliver his judgment. . In the course of the judg-
ment, Sri Atma Charan said : “ Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

in his statement says that he had no hand in the conspiracy,
if any, and had no control whatsoever over Nathuram Godse
and Narayan D. Apte. It has been mentioned above that the
prosecution case against Vinayak D. Savarkar rests on the
evidence of the approver and approver alone. It has further
been mentioned earlier that it would be unsafe to base any
conclusion on the evidence of the approver as against Vinayak
D. Savarkar. There is thus no reason to suppose that
Vinayak Damodar had any hand in what took place at Delhi
on 20-1-1948 and 30-1-1948.”

The learned judge concluded : “ Vinayak D. Savarkar : He
is found not guilty of the offences as specified in the charge,
and is acquitted thereunder. He is in custody and be released
forthwith unless required otherwise.”

Nathuram Godse was sentenced to death for his deliberate
and calculated act. Narayan D. Apte was also sentenced to
death as the real brain behind the murder, and the other
five accused, Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa, Gopal V.
Godse, Shankar Kistaya and Dr. Dattatraya Parchure, who
were found guilty of conspiracy and abetment, were sen-
tenced each to transportation for life. As soon as the judge
rose to depart, all the prisoners fell at the feet of Savarkar
in the dock and raised shouts of ‘ Akhand Hindusthan Amar
Rahe ; Hindu-Hindi Hindusthan, Kabi Na Honga Pakistan
It may be mentioned here that later, on June 21, 1949, Shankar
Kistaya and Dr. Parchure were both acquitted by the Pun-
jab High Coxart in an appeal as it was believed that Kistaya
did no more than carry out his master’s orders and the con-
fession of Dr. Parchure on which his conviction was based,
was found to be unreliable and vmsatisfactory by the Appeal
Court. The appeal of Godse, who again argued his own case

red fort ordeal and after 385

on the point of conspiracy and the appeals of Apte, Madanlal
and Gopal Godse, were not granted and eventually Nathuram
Godse and Narayan Apte died unrepentantly on the gallows
on the morning of November 15, 1949, in the Ambala Prison
vivtb the BKogauat Gita in their hands.

Savarkar did not enjoy the trial as he had enjoyed the
Nasik Trial thirty years ago. At the fag end of his life he
was put into a fiery ordeal. So he had to control every nerve,
every muscle and every drop of his blood with his uncommon
will power to outlive the obloquy and the ordeal. Like a
yogin, he wrote his plain letters to his son asking him to be
self-supporting and consoling his wife that after the greatest
catastrophe they had passed nearly twenty-five years in
happiness. He himself had to suffer unparalleled mental tor-
ments and agonies and he felt all the while a year and a week
the ingratitude on the part of his countrymen, who aimed
at damning him in the eyes of the world. That was a burn-
ing ordeal. It was therefore quite natural for such a man
of great will power and the burning emblem of sacrifice that
not a muscle on his face moved as he heard the decision of
the Court in the Red Fort.

Savarkar’s acquittal was a thunderbolt to his ill-wishers.
What a shame ! To Savarkarites and Hindu Sanghatanists
all over India, his release therefore was an occasion for great
rejoicings. Telegrams and letters of congratulations were
showered on him from all parts of India and from abroad.
Almost all Maharashtrian leading newspapers gave a sigh of
relief at the acquittal of Savarkar. So did the Hindu
Sanghatanists and other unbiased straightforward newspapers
all over India.

But no sooner was the acquittal of Savarkar pronounced,
than he was served with a notice under an order of the
Delhi Magistrate prohibiting him from leaving the Red Fort
area. It was a keen disappointment for the vast crowds that
had gathered outside the Red Fort to give an ovation to
, Savarkar whom they wanted to take out in a procession. A
few hours later, by another order under the Punjab Public
Security Measures Act, Savarkar was externed and was pro-
hibited from entering the Delhi area for a period of three
months and was escorted under police protection to his house

2S

386 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

at Shivaji Park, Bombay. The train carjying him reached
Dadar, Bombay, at about 10-30 a.m. on February 12, 1919.
The news of his departure from Delhi was kept a secret. Yet
hundreds of Hindu Sanghatanist workers and leaders greeted
Savarkar at the station. Savarkar was put by the police
officer, who escorted him from Delhi, in a motor car waiting
outside the station, and was driven to Savarkar Sadan. At
his house his wife and some ladies waved auspicious lighted
wicks around his face in the traditional Hindu fashion and
thus ended the Red Fort ordeal !

IV

After taking rest for about a month at Bombay, Savarkar
went to Bangalore for a few days for a change. On his way
back, he heard the news about the accident to the aeroplane
in which Sardar Patel was travelling and about his miracu-
lous escape in the neighbourhood of Jaipur. On reaching
Bombay, Savarkar immediately congratulated Sardar Patel
on his safety and said in the course of the congratulatory
telegram that “ the Sardar ’s life constituted a national asset and
his grasp of the realities and his firm hold on the helm had
steered the ship of the newly-born Bharatiya State clear of
many a rock and shoal.” On May 28 Savarkar’s birthday
was celebrated as usual by ail the District and Provincial
Hindu Sabhas all over India and some public meetings
passed resolutions demanding that Government should insti-
tute an inquiry into the causes that led to the prosecution of
Savarkar without the least clear evidence against him.
Savarkar, however, wanted the fire of acrimony enkindled by
his prosecution to be extinguished and so he communi-
cated to the Bombay Government his desire that a curtain
be dropped on the whole affair.

Towards the end of May 1949, the Constituent Assembly
passed one important article abolishing the separate electo-
rates, reservations and weightages which were based on the
invidious racial and religious discriminations. Upon this
Savarkar, who was the first nationalist leader to demand this
very thing years ago, sent a telegram to Sardar Patel con-
gratulating him for having thus vindicated ‘ the genuine

hed fort ordeal and after 387

national clvaracter ol our Bharatiya State ’ and hoped ‘ that
the adtniiustration would boldly carry it into effect in letter
and in spirit.’ Thanking Savarkar in return, Sardar Patel
said in his reply of June 2, that ‘ Government was already
doing and would continue to do its best to act accordin^y.’

In the middle of July 1949, Savarkar sent a telegram to
Sri M. S. Golwalkar, Chief of the R.S.S., extending his felici-
tations on the withdrawal of the ban on the R.S.S. and on the
release of the R.S.S. leader himself.

The Constituent Assembly had by now far advanced in the
framing of the constitution and now the question of the
appellation of the country, the choice of the script and the
Lingua Franca were being hotly discussed in the Assembly
and outside. Savarkar wired to the President of the Consti-
tuent Assembly his views on the subject. He said : “ I am
voicing the sense and sentiment of millions of our country-
men when I beseech the Constituent Assembly to adopt
Bharat, as the name of our nation, Hindi as the national lan-
guage and Nagari as the national script.” All the three were
subsequently incorporated into the Constitution by the Consti-
tuent Assembly for the Bharatiya Republic.

Just then Master Tara Singh, who was interned since some
months, was released. Savarkar offered him felicitations on
his release as he considered that “ Master Tara Singh was one
of the few leaders who kept up the heroic spirit of our people
of the Punjab in the dark days of the partition and saved the
East Punjab at any rate for us.”

In the same month Savarkar’s younger brother Dr.
Narayanrao Savarkar, passed away at the age of 61 on October
19, after remaining in an unconscious state for a fortnight from
an attack of paralysis. His illness and mental agony dated
back to January 1948 when he was murderously attacked by a
riotous mob of goondas inunediately after the assassination of
Gandhiji and from which he never recovered completely
afterwards. Next to none in national service, patriotic sacri-
fice, courage and intelligence, this silver-tongued orator of
Maharashtra, who had been during the British regime a symbol
of sedition, sacrifice, revolt and terror while his brothers were
rotting in the Andamans, died with an uncomproifiising
opposition to the anti-Hindu and un-Hindu forces. It was a

38ft SAVARKAH ANO HIS TIMES

cruel misfortune that Savarkar should witness the last of his
brothers consumed by fire.

In the meanwhile, the scattered forces of the Hindu
Sabhaites were preparing to hold the annual Session of the
Hindu Mahasabha at Calcutta. After a pressing and fervent
request from the veteran revolutionary leader, Sri Upendra-
nath Banerjee, who was a co-sufferer with Savarkar in the
Andamans and was a Congressman for a long time, and
had turned a Hindu Sabhaite after the Hindu Bengal had
reaped the fruits of partition, and ardent appeals from Sri
Ashutosh Lahiri, Savarkar decided to go to Calcutta, and
started on December 21, 1949, to attend the annual Session
of the Hindu Mahasabha. Almost throughout the journey,
Savarkar had to make brief speeches at several stations to
respond to the greetings of the crowds that awaited his arrival.
In Calcutta Savarkar was taken out in a huge procession along
with Dr. Khare, the President-elect, and Sri L. B. Bhopatkar,
the retiring President. Thousands of people participated in the
procession. In the Session, too, all attention was centred on
Savarkar. His acquittal in the Red Fort Trial had now added
colour and a further romance to his already romantic life.
Hindu Sanghatanists from all parts of the country gathered
in thousands at Calcutta to declare to the whole world that
their saviour had at last come back to guide them.

When Savarkar entered the Pandal, the huge congregation
stood up as if electrified with his darshan. It became hilarious
while shouting ‘ Veer Savarkar ki Jai ’ when Savarkar stood
before the mike with his palms characteristically resting on
the handle of his umbrella and wearing his brimless black
round cap. In his ninety-minute inaugural address to the
Session, Savarkar stressed first the point that the Indepen-
dence of India was a victory and not a political gift from the
British. He asserted that the independence was not accom-
plished by. the Congress alone, or the revolutionaries alone ;
it was, he said, the sxunmation of the struggle, sacrifice and
sufferings of thousands of patriots from 1857 to 1947 inside
and outside India. He ai&med that India was after all now
a Hindu State established under a Hindu Flag with the
Dharma-Chakra of the Hindu Race as its State Symbol. He
then stressed the need for continuing the Hindu Mahasabha

“ge P*‘ocession taken out in Calcutta in E>ecember 1P49 in honour of Veer Savarki***

£>r. IChare and Sri Bhopatkar

Savarkar with his wife, daughter and son

RED FORT ORDEAL AND AFTER 369

and exhorted the Hindu youths to join the Indian army, navy
and air forces in thousands. He also pleaded for the adopUon
of constitutional and democratic legal means for the fulfilment
of their objectives and appealed to the Hindus not to take the
law into their own hands. He suggested that there should be
a policy of tit for tat in our dealings with Pakistan and de-
clared : “It is the duty of our people to consolidate our posi-
tion first, and if we are true to our Mother and Soul, by ten
years’ time we can restore the territories that have been torn
away.”

The President, Dr. Khare, proclaimed in his usual fearless-
ness the re-entry of the Hindu Mahasabha into the field of
politics with the ideology of a cultural State and the Hindu
Rashtra as its guiding stars and affirmed that “ but for the
pressure increasingly applied by the Hindu Mahasabha, the
Congress could not have abandoned separate electorates or
adopted Hindi with Devanagari script as the Rashtra Bhasha.”

On January 26, 1950, was inaugurated the Sovereign Demo-
cratic Bharatiya Republic imder the Presidentship of Dr.
Rajendra Prasad. Savarkar issued a statement to the nation
on this occasion to commemorate the emancipation of our
Motherland from the British bondage. He also congratulated
Dr. Rajendra Prasad on his becoming the first President of
the Republic. In his congratulatory telegram, he ‘ placed his
services entirely at the disposal of the Republic in any
national undertaking and hoped that the foremost task of
creating the strongest possible Bharatiya army, navy and air
forces to defend our new-born Republic would receive his
immediate attention.’ Savarkar ended his congratulatory
message with the words ‘ Long live Akhand Bharat.*

In March 1950, the East Bengal burst into a conflagration.
The Noakhali tragedies were ruthlessly repeated. As fore-
told by Savarkar, the birth of Pakistan endangered the peace
and prosperity of Hindusthan, led the Indians to agony,
misery and sufferings, and Pakistan ‘ sought every opportu-
nity for expansion.* Moved by these tragedies in the £!ast
Bengal, even leaders like Sri Jai Prakash Narayan suggested
that our forces should be sent to the disturbed areas if
nothing else could stop the carnage. The general opinion in
the press and the platform seemed to favour the adoption of
some such drastic step. At this juncture, it was declared that

25

390 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Savarkar was going to attend the East Punjab Hindu Confer-
ence at Rohatak in the second week of April. Savarkar was
to break his journey at Delhi where the people had planned
to accord him an imposing reception.

About this time Pandit Nehru in good faith thought it fit
to try his method of negotiations to solve the Bengal problem
and invited Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan, the Premier of Pakistan,
to Delhi for a parley. The Premier of Pakistan at Karachi
in his speech before his Parliament levelled an attack against
the Hindu Mahasabha and attributed the East Bengal trage-
dies to its propaganda and to a Calcutta speech of Sardar
Patel in February 1950. And as if to create a calm and quiet
atmosphere for his delicate negotiations with the Pakistani
Premier, Savarkar who was out of active politics and who
had placed his services at the disposal of the Bharatiya Re-
public, was arrested at Bombay in the early morning of April
4, 1950, under the Preventive Detention Act, hundreds of
miles away from Delhi where the delicate negotiations were
being spun and was put into the Belgaum District Jail. Sri L.
B. Bhopatkar, Sri G. V. Ketkar, Sri Mamarao Date, Sri K. B.
Limaye, Sri G. M. Nalavade, and others were also thrown into
prison. This action on the part of the Govermnent was re-
sented and condemned by almost the entire press, political
leaders, and freedom-loving organizations like the Civil
Liberties Union of Bombay. Condemning this action, the
Free Press Journal, which had never shown even an iota of
sympathy with the Hindu Mahasabha, observed : “ The

offensive against the Hindu Mahasabha and the R.S.S. leaders
and workers has only one implication. That is, that, Premier
Nehru has elected to appease Pakistan and imperil the integ-
rity and the independence of India. The offensive against the
Hindu Mahasabha and the R.S.S. has a two-fold purpose ; one
is to divert India’s attention from the policy of appeasement ;
the other is to create a panic that there is a Hindu conspiracy
to rally the progressive elements in support of the policy of
appeasement of Pakistan.” ^ And all this took place in a
democratic India where the fundamental rights of the freedom
of speech and of association are guaranteed by the Constitu-
tion itself ! How long is Free India going to be deprived of
Savarkar’s nation-building co-operation and powers ?

1 The Free Press Journal, dated 5-4-1950.

CHAPTER XXI

The Man

I

The story of Savarkar is the history of resistance, strife,
struggle, sufferings and sacrifices for the cause of political,
social and economic emai^cipation of this Bharat Varsha. His
is a political career extended over fifty long years. How
many of his great contemporaries could see pioneers from
Ranade to philosophers like M. N. Roy, could strive for inde-
pendence of India and yet have the good fortune to see the
sun of freedom rise over India ? An active political leader
who either saw, talked or discussed politics with thinkers
from Ranade to Roy, leaders from Surendranath to Subhas,
from liberator Tilak to fighter Achyutrao Patwardhan ! No
other life on the political stage of India is marked by so many
vicissitudes, punctuated with raging storms and lightning and
tantalized with gaping gallows ! This is a political life
chequered with romantic threads of sufferings and is fringed
with sacrifices. Woven with recollections of the sea and
the steamer, it is interspersed with hell-like prison life and is
lined with historic arrests, trials and releases. Even one single
incident from the matchless drama of Savarkar’s life is long,
charming and thrilling enough to provide the span for a play
of immortal fame.

All his life Savarkcir has been bruised, bleeding, burning
and bursting. The sea is never tired of rivers. So is Savarkar
never tired of sufferings and services. Perhaps no other free-
dom movement produced such an indefatigable fighter with
such an undying love for his country ! Who would be pre-
pared to undergo such unimaginable sufferings, untold sacri-
fices and face formidable dangers for the mere love of his
country ? But it was this very characteristic of the forgetful
fit of the destiny of this man that though all the while storms
kept raging around him, be it rainy season or spring, yet the
sun in Savarkar always broke forth.

392 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Savarkar is an historical personality embodying the duty
and beauty of a man of mission and action. Ifis majestic
forehead at once reminds you of the forehead of Napoleon
who was also a victim of the British imperialistic wrath. One
look at the crown of his head and you would at once find a
crown in the middle of his head bequeathed by nature herself.
His face possesses the effulgent beauty of gold, his frame
strength of steel, and his head is a store of the hymns of
revolution. His small luring and penetrating eyes hollowed
in the high cheek-bones have the depth of the sea, lightning
of the sky, sweep of the storm and effluence of the volcano.
His eyes peep and probe into the lessons of the past and they
unfailingly warn the Hindus every time against the tragedies
of the present and the impending catastrophes of the future.
The eyes shine like a lighthouse indicating the unfailing direc-
tion to the ship of the nation for its movements in order to
avert the horrors of the approaching wreck. The square jaws
have witnessed his suppressed thoughts, his burning mission,
unfulfilled aims, unflagging industry, frustrated plans, stormy
life and unexampled sacrifice. His short, proportionate hand-
some figure looks like an image carved out of the bones,
blood and brains of the great Hindu thinkers and martyrs
from Hindu History. His head bald and glistening, his chest
broad and invincible, his waist lion-like, his neck short, his
hands small and commanding with an excellent rosy colour
and his height five feet four inches, all this a marvellous
creation of God and Earth. The artificial beauty of an actress
or the exaggerated handsomeness of Kashmiri politicians
would pale before his natural handsomeness.

And gifted with such a personality and blessed with a life
full of extraordinary achievements and undying episodes, he
moved among men as a mighty mesmeric man. Savarkar was
the first Indian student who was rusticated from the hostel
of an institution aided by the British Government and the first
Indian political leader, who publicly performed a bonfire of
foreign clothes. He was again the first political leader of
India to daringly proclaim absolute political independence of
Hindusthan as her goal at a time when the mere word Raj
or Swaraj spelled ruin for the speaker. Savarkar was the first
Barrister, who was refused the degree on account of his

THE MAN

393

political line of thought by the British Government and was the
first graduate to lose the degree of an Indian University for
his love for independence. Savarkar was again the first
Indian leader to invest the problem of Indian Independence
with international importance. He was the first Indian author,
who earned a distinction in the domain of world literature
as his work was proscribed by the Governments of two coun-
tries even before it was printed or published. Savarkar was
also the first rebel leader of India who refused to recognize
the authority of the British Court of Law. Savarkar was
the first political prisoner m the history of the world the issue
of whose arrest was fought out at the International Court at
the Hague. Savarkar is the first political prisoner in the poli-
tical history of the world, who was sentenced to half a cen-
tury’s transportation. Savarkar was the first poet in the
world, who, deprived of pen and paper, composed and wrote
his poems on the prison walls with thorns and jjebbles, learnt
by heart with Vedic tenacity more than ten thousand lines
of his poetry for years till they reached his country through
the mouth of others, and showed how since the dawn
of humanity the great Ary as kept the sacred Vedus circu-
lating from one generation to another by word of mouth.
Indeed, the legend of the memory of Macaulay, who could
repeat all Demosthenes by heart, all Milton and practically
the whole of the Bible, would find a formidable rival
in Savarkar.

Have you heard this typical Mahratta leader at a mass
meeting ? Dressed in immaculate white, with a black round
cap on his massive head, a black umbrella in his right hand
and a fresh newspaper in his left, the deep well-known long
whiskers on his lustrous serene face and eyes encircled in a
golden frame, Savarkar’s personality is at once outstanding
in any vast multitude. What a vast difference in Savarkar,
the lonely giant in his solitary room and Savarkar, the leader
and ruler of the masses ! The orator and prophet gets the
upper hand and Savarkar is always a hero to his valets !

Orators feed themselves on history. In it they seek inspi-
ration. They draw their own conclusions from history.
History develops their visions, heroes feed them on heroism
and their incomplete dreams fan their emotions. Demosthenes,

394 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

Pitt, Burke, Daniel Webster, Hitler, and Churchill belonged to
this type. Savarkar, too, belongs to the line of this immortal
race of orators.

Savarkar enters a mass meeting. He comes to the platfoi ni
walking the gait of a hero, his way opening before him in an
anxious sea of masses. He bows to the masses. The masses
move with waves of emotions as if the moon were in the sky.
He rises to deliver his message. He never comes with a set
speech. He usually speaks on the spur of the moment, lie
is like quick-silver. One listens to him in pin-drop silence or
misses the train of his arguments. His voice is a gre^at asset
and has a peculiar ring. His eyes glitter and glow when he
becomes animated.

Savarkar mercilessly overthrows the fallacies in the foggy
logic of his opponents. His opponents are bewildered at the
torrent of his eloquence. At every sentence you feel an oppo-
nent reeling. The flag goes to Attock, to Assam, to Cape
Comorin. His speech tears the mask of shams and confronts
you with naked realities. His speech has the whirl of a storm.
His humour is merciless. He throws logic and reasoning at
you through emotion. The audience thrills. It claps. It
moves. His eyes flash fire. His face glows with the mission
that burns bright in him. The masses mark the stout heart,
watch the steel frame, iron will, majestic forehead and the
boundless sincerity of a personality that heralded an era into
the history of Indian political struggle and social revolution.

Savarkar’s remarkable political speeches and masterpieces
were delivered before the Peshwas’ Shanivarwada, Poona, on
the Ghats of Cawnpore or in Delhi. They struck his critics
dumb, and cleared doubts and dusty thoughts. It is characteris-
tic of Savarkarian speeches that they sound as though the
Muse of oratory danced, played and wept with the feelings, joys
and sorrows of Savarkar ! His masterpieces begin with such
earnest and gripping sentences in a deep sonorous voice and
end with such a dramatic touching rise and fall in his voice
and moving tone that old men shed tears, youths are filled
with unbearable pathos and women piteously sigh. His magni-
ficent oratory, clear-cut thoughts and inspiring messages have
often sealed and unsealed historic decisions. He defeated and
left a wreck of Gandhiji's draft resolution advising the

THE MAH

395

withdrawal of the Hyderabad struggle before the Sholapur
Conference of the Arya Samaj in 1939. His concluding
speech at the Nagpur Session of the Hindu Mahasabha deli-
vered with a heart-force and a burning mission inspired the
inter-provincialists and new-comers. Leaders like Dr.
Mookerjee were magnetized during the course of one of such
speeches at Calcutta. Not only leaders, lawyers and literary
figures listen to him spell-bound, but foreigners also are en-
chanted with the magic w; ,d of his oratory. While Savarkar
was on his way to Shilloi'j , an Englishman travelling in the
same train, heard the deafening greetings of the people to
Savarkar at every station. At one station the Englishman
requested Savarkar through his secretary to make a short
speech ; for he had heard in England, he said, that Savarkar
was one of the greatest orators. He heard Savarkar speak before
a crowd at the next station, introduced himself to Savarkar
and wishing him all success went away. Fortunate were
those who heard him speak on the ‘War of Independence of
1857 ’ after his release in 1937. Those who heard his Presi-
dential Addre.ss at the Marathi Literary Conference in
Bombay were lucky. Those who attended the Non-Party
Conference in Bombay and Poona need no introduction to
understand why Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru came to Savarkar’s
chair at the time of the Bombay Non-Party Conference,
thanked Savarkar from the bottom of his heart and said ; “It
is you who saved the Conference.” Of Savarkar the Amrit
Bazar Patrika, Calcutta, said that Savarkar was a man of
Mission. The Sunday Standard, Bombay, described him as
an orator of the first order. It added : “ Few others in the

whole of India can thrill and sway his listeners as this simple-
looking Hindu leader can. He is an orator of the first degree ;
and it is a pleasure to hear him speak, his eyes flashing, his
lips quivering, his weak body trembling with emotion.” India
has enjoyed the scintillating speeches of Srinivas Sastri, the
sweet flow of Jayakar, the roarings of the tireless Satyamurthi,
the powerful appeal of Maulana Azad, the high-flown emotio-
nal speeches of Devi Sarojini Naidu, the seriousness of the
visionary in Pandit Nehru and the chattering train of Rajaji,
but India witnessed the culmination and perfection of oratory
in Savarkar, rightly called the Indian Demosthenes.

396 SAVARKAB AND HIS TIMES

n

If you want to study the history of the Indian Revolution,
the history of the social revolution in Maharashtra, and the
history of the literary movement launched to purge the Indian
languages of foreign influence and words, and keep our Lingua
Franca undefiled, you must study Savarkar. Maharashtra has
not produced a more volcanic brain than Savarkar, a leader
whose outlook is absolutely rational and up-to-date. According
to him, rational outlook must obtain control over the political,
social and military life of India, if India is to survive the
struggle for existence. Savarkar welcomes the machine age,
believes in mechanized agriculture and modernised industry.
He wants India to prepare and equip herself physically,
mentally, technically, mechanically and militarily, not with
the object of enslaving other nations, but for liberating the
enslaved peoples of the world from all kinds of shackles,
superstitions and imperialism. During the last two decades
no leader has waged more ruthlessly an unrelenting war
against the barriers of caste system in schools and in public
places, in intercaste dinners and in social intercourse, and has
as much suffered, toiled and faced dangers and dispraise and
even curses as Savarkar in the annihilation of untouchability.
That is why they call him a fusion of the great Mahratta
leaders of modem times who heralded a new epoch in the
history of India. The spirit of Nanasahib, who fought the
War of Indian Independence of 1857, the sweep of Wasudeo
Balwant Phadke who first raised an armed revolt in Maha-
rashtra for the establi-shment of an Indian Republic, the mental
force of Chiplunkar, the reformative zeal of Agarkar, the
sacrifice and struggle of Tilak, the service of Gokhale and
untiring work of Kelkar, all these find an echo in the alchemy
of Savarkar. Who made Shivaji what he was ? Who
moulded Tilak ? Paranjpe or no Paranjpe, Tilak or no
Tilak, Savarkar would have been Savarkar !

Savarkar is a Hindu among the Hindus, but of the Chitor
type. He is proud of his heritage and grateful to it. He finds
his guiding star in Lord Krishna, the glory of Hindusthan. He
sees in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj the fount of inspiration.
He regards Rana Pratap as the fire of patriotism, Guru Govind

THE MAN

397

Singh the sire of martyrdom, and Sadashiv Bhau the righteous
sword of Hindusthan. To defend, to enliven and to raise the
Hindu Nation is to him a national, patriotic, righteous, just,
human and a sublime cause.

Savarkar does not hate you because you are an Englishman
or a Mohammedan or a Jew ! He has paid glowing tributes
to the skill and might of the Britishers. Savarkar was the
only leader in India, who envisaged a State for the floating
race of the Jews ever since 1908, and in 1923, he wrote in his
famous work Hindutim that ‘ if the Zionists’ dreams were
realised, if Palestine became a Jewish State, it would gladden
us almost as much as our Jewish friends.’ * Since his release
in 1937, he had been a staunch supporter of the idea of a
Jewish state in Palestine and in 1947, no Indian leader was as
happy as Savarkar except possibly Master Tara Singh to see the
emergence of a Jewish Slate in Palestine. It was curious that
Jinnah, who fought for the partition of India, paradoxically
opposed the partition of Palestine, and Gandhiji and Nehru,
who favoured the Arabs with an undivided Palestine accelerat-
ed and accepted the vivisection of India ! As for the Parsees
and Christians, Savarkar had no grudge against them. He not
only appreciated their co-operation and patriotic outlook, but
also cherished hopes of building with them an Indian State
in which the religion, culture and language of the minorities
would be preserved. He never cherished to impose dis-
advantages upon the non-Hindus. That is why he met and
discussed in a frank, free and accommodating spirit with the
leaders of the Parsees, the Jews and the Cliristians who wanted
to remain in India as loyal citizens enjoying equal rights with
the Hindus. But as he rightly suspected the separatist tenden-
cies and extra-territorial ambition of the Muslims, he was not
prepared to give them an inch more than they democratically
deserved and for this outspokenness he was called a communa-
list by those who were pro-Muslim. Events have proved now
the correctness of Savarkar’s stand and the futility and falsity
of the appeasing policy of the pro-Muslim patriots who
claimed the appellation nationalists for themselves. Some of
the pro-Muslim Hindu leaders and journals drum that the
medieval days of the Peshwas are gone. But they forget that

1 Savarkar, Hirtdutva, p. 112.

398 SAVARKAK AND HIS TIMES

had Savarkar lived during the Peshwa rule, he -would have
conquered back the land of Gandhar and it is equally true
that he would have bravely faced the Todarmals, Birbals and
Mansinghs.

It is, however, a fact that Savarkar is an echo of the unjustly
suppressed, exploited and disturbed soul of the Hindus. His
soul has become one, and is synchronized with the sorrows
and joys of Hindudom, the Hindu world. Whenever some-
thing harms or jeopardizes the interests, property, honour and
lives of the Hindus, he gets restless. So perennial is his love
for the Hindus, so eternal is his hope of their great future and
the role of the Hindus in the building of the peace and
prosperity of the world, that he is infuriated whenever he
hears that the Hindus are suppressed and their just rights
denied ; and when that feeling is on him, he shows signs of a
violent dislike for those who trample upon the Hindu rights,
oppress them and make aggressions on them.

Savarkar has been waging war since his early youth. His
war is against those who trample upon the just and fimda-
mental rights of the Hindus in their Homeland. His war is
against those who deface and disgrace humanity in this land.
His was the war of a Nation against all intruders, disruptive
men and bogus World Federalists whose practice was divorced
from their professions and whose actions led to the break-up
of the solidarity and the integrity of Hindusthan. And there-
fore Savarkar is a terror to tyrants, foe to injustice, an antidote
to anti-nationalists and an unforgiving critic of the pro-Muslim
politicians in India. To him a disruptive patriot or a Pakistani
Hindu is synonymous with a pretender or a traitor respec-
tively and literally. Savarkar is opposed to Pakistans as heat
is to cold. His political philosophy is as different from
Gandhism as chalk from charcoal. He wants a place for the
Hindus on the map of the world as Bharat Bhoomi or
Hindusthan and so he says that Hindusthan belongs to the
Hindus. What is -wrong in it ? Can the Hindus rightfully
say that Britain, Germany or Turkastan belongs to them ?

Savarkar is an electric powerhouse. You cannot touch it.
His conversational gift is nothing less than dictatorial, but
tinged with utmost rationalism. To begin -with, he will
patiently listen to you with some pertinent queries and then

THE MAN

399

would do 1 .ost of the talking. Looking to the force of his
arguments, logic and reasoning, some say he is vain and
egoistic. But the fact is that by temperament he is assertive,
unyielding and dictatorial due to a feeling of superiority
complex, a belief in the rightness and justice of his cause and
due to his strong convictions and mellowed thoughts. And
strong personalities cire alw^ays so. Bernard Shaw once
silenced his critics who charged him with vanity and egoism.
He told his cj'itics that had any of them gone through the trials
and hardships which he himselt had undergone, he would
have been hundred limes tnore vciin and egoistic than Shaw
himself. One-tenth of Savarkar’s trials, tribulations and
talents, and the critics would have been ten times more egoistic
and vain than Savarkar.

Savarkar’s logic is curt, his humour caustic and his whipping
electric. He is a stern mouth-stopper. During his premier-
ship Mr. Fazlul Huq boasted that the Muslims were tigers and
lions and they would harass the Hindus. Savarkar hit him
back : “ The history of creation proves that it is men who

have reclaimed the earth and lions and tigers had to retii*e
to the obscuritj^ of the forest. We Hindus are men. One man
with a whip in his hand controls scores of lions and tigers in
a circus and these beasts obey wonderfully well.’’ The same
Muslim leader said that Malabar was a part of Arabia.
Savarkar pulled him up by replying tliat if it was so, then
Arabia must be annexed to India ! To the Pakistanis and their
supporters who said that because in some provinces the
Muslims were in a majority, they wanted Pakistan, Savarkar
replied with equal ruthlessness that because in Hindustban
the Hindus were in a majority, Hindusihan belonged to the
Hindus. Dr. Rajendra Prasad said during the Biharsharif riot
days that he advised the Hindus as his own people. Savarkar
asked Dr. Rajendra Prasad as to w^hen he had deserted his
Indian Nationalism and condescended to call only the Hindus
his own people. One wordy Socialist once asked Savarkar
whether he had read Lenin. The upstart was silenced by
Savarkar with one stroke : “ Had Lenin read Savarkar ? ” Not
that he has neglected literature on Communism. The author
has seen some books on the subject in Savarkar ’s small
personal library read, underlined and with remarks made in

400 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

the margin by Savarkar at the proper places, especially on
books by Lenin and Trotsky. Savarkar has read many book.s
on the subject before his release and of late he often directs
his men to buy the latest books on Socialism. But what he
hates most is blind babbling of foreign phraseology and blind
worship -which totally disregard the conditions, traditions and
the history of our country.

Savarkar is a unique combination of a dreamer and a doer,
a prophet and a warrior, a realist and a revolutionary all in
one man. In him you will find a Washington who unsheathed
liis sword for freedom ; a Thomas Paine who wielded an
inspiring pen, and a Mazzini who ushered in a revolutionary
epoch and started the war of Independence. Soaringly
imaginative yet severely logical, erudite yet perspicuous,
Savarkar is not merely a great writer, but a very great one.
Describing Savarkar’s place in the domain of literature,
Gandhiji’s Mahratta biographer, Sri D. N. Shikhare wrote :

“ It is admitted on all hands, including his political opponents,
that Mr. Savarkar is a rare genius. He is a pen of fire. He
wields pen and pistol alike. Patriotism and Poetry run
through the veins of his literature. England may be proud of
her statesmen writers like Morley and MacDonald and Russia
may well boast of Tolstoy and Gorky ; but India surpasses all
these countries in having Mr. Savarkar who is a writer, a
statesman and a warrior. His pen would have shaken the
world from its bottom but for the narrow scope of the Marathi
language, through which mother tongue he masterly expresses
himself.^ In India Savarkar as an author is a class by him-
self, for Savarkar has -written in blood lines with his blood
and the bones of martyrs. It is the characteristic of all
immortal authors that they cannot write in artificial pruned
lines with their stomach at ease, for there is no halfway house
for positive personalities. Savarkar’s -writings raise a storm
of emotions and shake your intellect. His pen arouses fierce
hatred and fierce loyalties. You feel a storm has passed over
you or some power has dashed against you. All his -writings,
both jyoetry and prose, preach resistance to tyranny, inspire
you with courage and direct your energies towards the libera-
tion of mankind from all bondages. Savarkar is a great poet,

1 D. N. Shikhare, The Mahratta, dated 27-5-1938.

THE MAN

401

a poet of g!’eat, grand and epic poetry. His poetry is logic
on fire, as all great poetry is, and satisfies your intellect as
well as emotions. His epic genius gave the people high ideals,
his great pen infused an irresistible spirit of independence into
the people, his supreme courage and unparalleled sacrifice
aroused their patriotic feeUngs, his words made them feel the
spirit of nationality and realize the solidarity of the nation.
Savarkar has educated the illiterate, motivated the educated
and activized the learned.

Savarkar is a great social reformer. Neither talkative nor
fashionable reformers can « neasure Savarkar’s worth and work
in purging the society pitilessly and fearlessly of its ills,
ignorance and superstitions. Many were a bell-ringer to social
revolution, a few worked actually in the field, but few had the
unfailing courage and the genius of a practical social reformer.
A social reformer requires a certain amoimt of courage, con-
viction and a stout but elastic heart to achieve his goal. And
Savarkar’s courage and heart have well shaken the world.
His strong conviction, dauntless courage, endless faith, endur-
ing capacity for work, unremitting industry, untiring energy,
invincible determination and a volcanic pen belong to the type
of men like Luther, Knox, Mazzini, Rousseau, Voltaire and
Carlyle, who represent the moral force of the world and stamp
their mind upon their age.

But the outstanding characteristic of Savarkar is that he is
a great iconoclast, one of the greatest idol-breakers Asia has
ever seen or produced. A strong will, a volcanic pen, a power-
ful hammer, a fiery heart, a scathing contempt for hypocrisy,
Savarkar is a born iconoclast, who despises and scorns
hypocrisy in religion, society, and politics. He does not strutt
off as an agent of God descended down to herald a new era,
nor does he pretend to possess an inner voice. His is the
voice of reason and science. Therefore he ruthlessly routed
and pitilessly hammered out all kinds of superstitions, bond-
ages, sanctimonious hypocrisy in society, in religion and in
politics. From bigoted Sanatanists to bogus saints, dead or
alive, none escaped the strokes of his hammer ! He possesses
all the attributes, tests and elements of greatness. According
to Dr. Ambedkar a Great Man is he who acts as the scourge
and scavenger of society. Savarkar is a really Great Man,

402 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

who is motivated by the dynainics of a social purpose anu
has acted as the scourge and scavenger of Society.

Savarkar is a hero at many points. The hero as poet in
Savarkar is extolled to the skies in Maharashtra ; the hero
as a man of letters, he is claimed to be an immortal author
by litterateurs ; the hero as patriot in Savarkar is deified all
over India ; but the hero as prophet in Savarkar is not yet
appreciated by many outside his party. The business of a
prophet is to see and teach. A prophe t possesses three main
qualities. They are insight, courage and sincerity. As to
courage and sincerity, Savarkars name is now a legend.
Savarkar has proved the unfaiiingiiess of his insight on several
occasions. Savarkar predicted as early as 1925 that the separa-
tion of Sind from Bombay Province for appeasing the Muslim
mind would be a disastrous precedent, would destroy the Sind
Hindus and would pique the appetite of the anti-national
Muslims. In 1938 he declared to the surprise of the whole
nation that the Congress led by Gandhiji would betray the
nation and would destroy the unity of India by conceding
Pakistan. In 1940 he warned the Assam Hindus that if they
did not check the Muslim influx into Assam, Assam would
meet the fate of Sind and Bengal. Congressmen then laughed
at him. However, in 1947 they owned his prophecy, for Assam
was almost tagged to Pakistan, but was fortunately saved
through the vigilance of the leaders who at last realized the
danger after the frantic and hoarse cry of Savarkar. The
warning sounded about the fate of Kashmir in 1938 went
unheard and the Kashmir Hindus paid for it and ultimately
Hindus all over Hindusthan had to pay crores of rupees and
pour their blood for defending Kashmir from the onslaughts
of the Pakistanis. Did not the Nizam, too, suffer the fate as
predicted by Savarkar ?

When World War II broke out and Russia joined it,
Savarkar at once remarked that the crafty Britain had saved
her throat, and now she would swallow the whole of Africa.
At the time of the battle of Stalingrad, Savarkar said that if
Japan failed to attack Russia from the Eastern side, both
Germany and Japan would lose the war and Japan would
have to pay for her folly in the long run. What actually did
happen is too well known to be recounted.

THE MAN

403

Men of prophetic vision never try to please the masses. They
aim at guiding them. They always look to the larger interests
of the people, not only of their own generation, but of future
generations as well. So they are many a time not as popular
as they should be. They never pander to popularity, nor do
they sacrifice their conscience for success. The masses do not
understand the prophetic visions of these men because what
these prophets see is beyond their horizon.

Ill

The shades of prison life have dominated the citizen
Savarkar, and have much affected the politician Savarkar too.
Those shades and shadows often times obscure his social inter-
course with his partymen and public men. Moody and erratic,
he could not create a certain warmth that is needed in a party
chief towards his colleagues, partymen and followers. For the
consolidation and success of a political party, the wings of
the soft heart of the party chief mu.st reach at least the con-
necting hooks in the link. The chief must be cordial enough
to enquire about the difficulties of his lieutenants and ajTange
to help them so as to enable them to devote their best to the
cause and service of the people. Excepting the rare names
of Ranade, Tilak and Gandhiji, no other party chief could bring
himself to this much-needed accommodating frame of mind.
Tilak ran to distant places even for settling the marriage of a
daughter of his disciple, or could advise a farmer in the matter
of his legal problems even from the Mandalay Prison.
Gandhiji could tear out his heart, what of purse, to soothe the
grief and troubles of his peirty leaders. But the case of
Savarkar, the political leader, is quite different. He could
not respond to the enthusiasm or warmth of other leaders, who
sought his interviews or valuable guidance, or those who even
passed valuable information on to him secretly. The fate of
interviewers and foreign visitors was no better. The glamour
of the furniture of Mr. Jinnah, the warmth and hospitality of
the special guest-house of Tilak for political leaders and
eminent guests, the living interest and paternal inquiries of
Gandhiji into the personal affairs of his lieutenants, and Pandit
Nehru’s abiding hospitality to foreigners, or friendly invitations

404 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

for dinners to eminent men, admirers, or party leaders,
or a casual invitation to his inter-provincial visitors or an
appreciative call to the pressmen, all these could not impress
Savarkar, the political leader. Cynically disinterested, he did
not feel any inward urge for it. His ideas and beliefs of
patriotic duties and national obligations were purely and
supremely patriotic and selfless. His motto was duty irres-
pective of any consideration of fruit. And this was the noble
motto of all those early selfless revolutionaries. Savarkar
expected every Indian to do his duty by his Motherland who
pined for freedom. This highly disinterested and selfless
mental make-up came in the way of the modern set-up of
propaganda, which depends upon much give and take. This
has materially affected the destiny of the party and his leader-
ship.

But in spite of such restricted sense of warmth in the social
intercourse and sympathy with his party men, lieutenants
and followers due to the legacy of his long prison life and
shattered health, Savarkar is the only political leader in India
for whom and at whose command hundreds of youths would
lay down their lives. This is due to Savarkar’s unrivalled
genius, selfless patriotism, unparalleled sacrifice and dynamic,
mighty and mesmeric personality.

So, introvert and restless, Savarkar breathes flames of un-
dying faith in spite of an unsympathetic and unsound consti-
tution that has withstood unimaginable horrors, terrors and
tortures of the Andamans. “ A long exile in the Andamans
wrecked his health early in life, and it is amazing how he has
regathered his strength and carried on so long in public life,”
remarked the National Herald while commenting on the
retirement of Savarkar in 1943. So much unsound is his
constitution that sleep is always forced on him by the use of
bromide. Writing about the introvert and restless Savarkar,
a writer in the Hindusthan Times, Delhi, described Savarkar
as an ascetic and inward looking man who in his youth almost
set the Thames on fire, and observed : “ Savarkar is strange.
He may not glitter. His attitude may not please you. He is
mesmeric with a capacity to infuse in an observer a sense of
cold aloofness.” A little cynicism may be, therefore, excused
in such a highly constrained constitution. For almost thirteen

THS MAN

405

years he was companionless and was forced to eat with
cruel punctuality, at the same place and the same quality and
kind of food prepared with the matchless prison skill and
medical care. This has made him what he is today. His iso-
lation is mostly due to circumstances and partly due to his
temperament. He lives alone. That giants must live apart
and kings have no company is true, Hterally true of Savarkar.

Savarkar, the promoter of science and advocate of
modernism, lives a very simple life. Wonderstruck at the
homely and rough simplicity of his little house known as
Savarkar Sadan, once Sri Srinivas Sastri asked : “ Savarkar,
is this the house you live in ? ” “ Yes,” replied Savarkar.

“ Why, is this not more comfortable than the cell in the
Andamans ? ” And Sastri was struck with a strange emotion.
After much consideration and many visits of world-famous
men to his house, there were slight additions which he would
call considerable to the equipment and establishment of his
house by way of a little furniture. It is a plain middle-class
life of contentment, which yearns not for what it does not
have.

Savarkar has no friends. Almost all his brilliant colleagues
of early days have perished in foreign lands ; others here are
now dead and gone. His present colleagues and co-workers
cannot understand exactly what he is. Even older politicians
like Dr. Moonje talked with Savarkar with due care and awe
and none tried to be familiar with him. As to the relations,
there are few who venture to be on visiting terms with the
family and none lives with him. It is generally the case with
all revolutionary leaders that they live almost estranged and
segregated from their friends and families as the circumstances
and nature of their work demand. In normal course none
would be willing to cast in one’s lot with a revolutionary and
that too a leader, and incur the displeasure of the authorities.
And Savarkar is such a name ! Terrific, towering, volcanic,
panoramic, mesmeric and historic ! What of living and stay-
ing with the person, the fire, those who have played with the
name have quailed and have been haunted throughout their
lives and it has sat upon their chest like nightmare ! Because
of ever-attending dangers Savarkar stays alone with his small
family consisting of his wife and only son and sometimes his

406 SAVAHKAR AlTD HIS TIMES

TCVartVed daughter on a visit to her father. His brother, Dr N.
D Savarkar, resided with his family in the same locality,
Savarkar is blessed with a wife of a great Aryan type repre-
sentative of the traditional loyalty and endless devotion that
stood the long period of 18 years Ml of trials and sufferings.
Sober, deep, silent and enduring, she is a prudent housewife
and a noble soul. The household affairs are smooth and regu-
lar. There is no question of choosing food or eatables. Simple
food and fruits, bare necessities and no waste is the rule of the
kitchen. The kitchen is not bothered about the likes and
dislikes. No complaints, no worries whether some vegetables
have less salt or more of spices. Often bhajis and curds and
at times icecream and shrikhand are welcome. That a man
should not be addicted to anything, but should be accustomed
to many things is the rule. During a railway journey he may
take eggs-curry and seldom mutton, but no smoking, wine
never, not a drop in any form. Savarkar does not like a hot
meal ; almost cold eatables he relishes which you may call a
legacy of the Andamans.

When Savarkar is in a happy mood, he may indistinctly
hum to himself a line or two from his poetry. In a happy
mood and when alone, he may stretch his legs a little, may
give a gentle push to his cap if it is on, and may hum a tune.
Chocolates and Jintan are relished by him. Snuff is his
companion ; scent his abiding luxury. His one hobby is
gardening and the poet is seen in communion with plants and
flowers. Regular light physical exercise in the evening is a
habit. He has no love for music. For art he has respect.

Grief, pain, worries and anger he would not give expression

) to. Neither would joy giggle over his face. Those who sur-
round him must observe precision in details, for his cross-
examinations are testing and inseparable and to some extent
worrying, even the slightest deviation being immediately
detected. None can hide facts from the penetrating and
searching eyes. It is true that he is not easy of access. You
have to fix up an appointment beforehand. Strict adherence
to this rule has saved him much harassment, but also has
estranged many. Travellers, business magnates, eminent
leaders and even princes had to go back because they did not
fix up the interviews beforehand. If you come to Bombay on

TH£ MAN

407

some work of yours and come to Savarkar Sadan in your
huriy to leave Bombay when Savarkar has no time, is it the
fault of Savarkar that you leave his house disappointed ?
Under such a troubled situation, a great liberal luminary once
remarked that it was easy to see the King Emperor or the
Viceroy but not Savarkar.

Savarkar’s handwriting is small, slanting and spreads over
every corner by and by. As with time so with paper. He
uses it sparingly. No letter would be ready for being posted
unless the important lines therein are underhned. You may
love to see him reading a newspap>er. He holds the news-
paper in the left hand and, lifting his spectacles a little with
his right thumb, he goes on reading and commenting briefly.

Savarkar gets up at about seven in the morning. His break-
fast consists of eggs and tea. Then he peruses newspapers,
attends to his correspondence, and interviews his visitors
between 9 a.m. and 11-30 a.m. About noon he takes liis bath
and then meal in the kitchen almost all by himself. In between
the meal and the bath he would often sit like a Yogin for an
hour or so as if in a trance which he calls concentration of
mind. At such a time his food may become cold, his wife
waiting silently in the kitchen. Owing to pressure of work,
of late he found no time to practise what he calls concentration
of mind. At noon he has siesta. In the evening comes the
reading of important letters to be replied, detailed reading of
newspapers and select books. After tea and a talk with
familiar guests, if any, he goes downstairs for a stroll in his
garden with some gardener's tools accompanied by the watch-
man who assists him. Then follows the daily regular physical
exercise. After supper he devotes generally an hour or so to
important office work and retires with some regular dose of
medicine.

One point more and quite interesting. As is typical of
revolutionary leaders, Savarkar talks very slowly about his
personal and home matters. To him secrets are treasures. He
is too great a veteran revolutionary leader. None could screw
out from him what Dr. Schatt, the German Finance Wizard,
told him on the eve of the outbreak of World War II, nor the
source he received the letters of Has Behari Bose from Japan
26

408 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

during the coiu-se of World War II, nor the full details of his

meeting with Subhas Bose.

IV

Savarkar is majestic in his misery and serene in his sorrows.
He clings to the state of his things with the pride of a Pope.
Where politics and policy are concerned, money means little
or nothing, his ideal everything. Savarkar will not march
with anybody and everybody, be he a kingly Kuber or a
moneyed Mahatma. Men of mission never rotate around
others like satellites. They are creators of dynasties and
makers of kings and kingdoms. They never sacrifice their
conscience for wordly success ; nor do they care for a passing
phase of life, of fame and of happiness. So is Savarkar. What
position Savarkar could not have achieved which eminent
Liberals, moderate politicians and opportunist leaders could
achieve ? Is there any talent superior to Savarkar in the first
Cabinet of Free India in intellect, in sacrifice, in mental and
oratorical powers, in patriotic service, in intellectual honesty
and political strategy ? Where his lieutenant leader,
Dr. Mookerjee, could ascend with his blessing, he could have
easily walked into such positions. But Savarkar did not
compromise his conscience for the success of personal gains and
cheap popularity. He sacrificed all the great honour that
could have easily fawned at his feet, or else “ our dream of an
Indian Republic with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as its first
President ” ^ would have been realized today.

But life for a cause, for a faith and not for power, Savarkar
loves most. That life may be surrounded by a storm, or a
volcano or the gallows. For, to refuse to betray one’s con-
science to the last, in spite of a general defeat and humiliation
and stand for a fight against the world, bearing a cheerful
face and the cross of sacrifice as freely as the sunflower gives
its bosom to the rays of the sun, is the creed of Savarkar.
Savarkar is a patriot, who fights losing battles and has the
spirit of martyrs who face defeats and death amidst the shouts
of enemies. Naturally, to Savarkar the greatest sacrifice a
man can make in his life is that of cheap fame. Times without

* Niranjan Pal, The Mahratta, dated 27-5-1938.

THE MAN

409

number he told his co-workers, his lieutenants and followers
in the Mahasabha that those who had people’s welfare at
heart should never pander to popularity. Kant also said the
same thing. He said : “ Seek not the favour of the multitude,
for it is seldom got by honest and lawful means.” And
although Savarkar pitilessly hammered the so-called gods,
godmen and superstitions out oi the temples of society, religion
and politics, his popularity is tremendous, extraordinary and
abiding. Countless heads have bowed down before Savarkar,
lakhs of believing multiti; Jes have fallen at his feet with devo-
tion in spite ol his resisting unwillingness on rational grounds.
Male and female octogenarians have regarded him as an
incarnation of God, the Patitpavan, and a few even breathed
their last in tranquillity after having a look at his picture which
they believed to be divine. In the emulation of their devotion
to Savarkar many brilliant youths like Sri Maokar of Nagpur
risked their lives. Many have thrown out pictures of false
gods and so-called godmen after a visit to Savarkar. His old
colleagues and veteran public men have wriggled in their
death-beds awaiting his impossible Darshan — glimpse — and
some died with his name on their faltering tongue and waver-
ing lips instead of the call of Ramnam ! Several revolutiona-
ries, many patriots and some poets have borne the dust from
his residence on their foreheads with devotion. To thousands
he is nothing less than a God. To lakhs he is an art of
eloquence. To millions he is a poem of patriotism, a picture
of sacrifice and to poets he is an acted epic !

Such a fiery, positive and forceful personality is bound to
be brutally frank in his criticism of historic and contemporary
personalities. Of Tilak he ever speaks with reverence. He
has defensive love for Kelkar, reverence for Ranade, high
respect for Gokhale, Nana Shankarshet, Dadabhoy Naoroji,
Surendranath Banerjee, B. C. Pal, Srinivas Sastri, M. R.
Jayakar and Vijayaraghavachariar. For Lajpat Rai, Hardayal,
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, Ras Behari Bose, Bhai Parma-
nanda, and Moonje he has a deep love. He has a soft corner
for M. N. Roy and Subhas Bose. He describes Vivekananda
as a world genius, Dayananda as a Yogi, a seer and a spiritual
teacher who worked like a giant for the uplift of mankind, and
describes Dr. Ambedkar’s towering personality, erudition and

410 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

capacity to lead as an asset to the nation. He styled Rama-
nanda Chatterjee as a great patriot, who defended the
legitimate rights of the Hindus and whose humanitarianism
and nationalism, he said, were of the purest ray serene. When
Rajaji propagated the ideal of Pakistan, Savarkar described
him as a subtle mad MuUa though he had once described
Rajaji as the best Premier. He calls Azad crafty ; Pandit
Nehru sincere but flamboyeint. He wishes well of Sardar
Patel as to him the Sardar is the only man in the Congress
‘ who has steered the ship of our newly born Bharatiya State
clear of many a rock and shoal.’

Savarkar is Sir C. V. Raman’s bright Diamond. Millions
hail him as Swatantryaveer — the hero of Independence. To
Rajaji Savarkar is a symbol of courage, bravery, fearlessness
and intense patriotism and a pioneer who strove and struggled
for inflaming the aspirations of the Indian people.' Gandhiji
paid tributes to Savarkar’s patriotism and fearlessness and said
that sacrifice was the common bond between them.'-’ Jayakar
said that to honour Savarkar was to honour patriotism and
sacrifice. M. N. Roy described him as his inspirer and a fear-
less man and appreciated his sacrifice and intellectual honesty.
Sri Srinivas Sastri hailed Savarkar as ‘ a great and fearless
patriot and added that volumes could be written about Veer
Savarkar’s yeomen services in the cause of Indian freedom.’
Mr. K. F. Nariman described Savarkar as a colourful,
picturesque and romantic personality. Bhai Parmananda said
of him that Savarkar was the fusion of Burke and Mazzini.
To Mr. S. R. Pather, Bar-at-law, South Africa, and one-tune
colleague of Savarkar, India owes her present advanced posi-
tion to Savarkar’s early struggle in the cause of freedom. To
historian Dr. Pattabhi, Savarkar is one of the noble characters
that devoted their life to this noble and patriotic task (emanci-
pation of Motherland) and who worked according to their
lights and according to the lights of the times for the emanci-
pation of India. To Guy A. Aldred, editor the Word, Glasgow,
he is a prophet, and deserves a place in the line of prophets !

1 Kajaji, Message to the Lokamanya, dated 26-6-1937.

2 D. N. Shikhare, the Chitraviaya Jagat, November 1944.

THE MAN

411

V

But what about the aims and ideal for which Savarkar stood
and fought ? Is his life a success ? It is for the cool,
calculating and balanced history to assess man’s work with a
cold impartiality and grade it great or otherwise. Feelings,
passion;; and prejudices often affect contemporary judgment.

Reviewing this eventful life, one finds two notes of action,
which had filled the skies at the time of Savarkar’s birth and
boyhood, have echoed tin ough the life story of Savarkar. The
revolting force of Wasudeo Balw^ant, the spiritual and social
renaissance set in by Dayananda on the one hand, and the
wave of Hindu-Muslim riots and the consequential bifurcation
in the political ideal of the Hindus and Muslims on the other.
The revolutionary urge and the Hindu-Muslim problem clung
to Savarkar’s life throughout. Savarkar took a vow while
in his teens that he would fight out the British power and make
his country free, independent and great. His political ideal
was : “ India must be independent. India must be united.

India must be republican. India must have one common
tongue. India must have one common script. That script is
Nagari ; that Language is Hindi ; that republic is that national
form of Government in which the sovereign power — whether
it be exercised by a monarch or by a President matters not
much — must rest ultimately and uncompromisingly in the
hands of the Indian people.” This was the ideal for which the
Abhinava Bharat stood. This was the ideal for which the
Hindu Mahasabha stands. There is scarcely any other historic
figure under the sun that has gone through such epic ordeals
as Savarkar has done for fulfilling his vow.

The idea of bifurcation conceived by the historic Muslim
mind and started on its foot by Sir Syed Ahmed was
enthusiastically supported by the Muslims, was accepted by
the Congress leaders and ended in the vivisection of India.
As Savarkar saw independence in sight, he grew restless about
the unity and integrity of India, the concept and ideal of
which to men like Savarkar was noble, sublime and divine.
But during the period of Savarkar’s long incarceration and
internment, the Gandhian lead betrayed a woeful lack of self-
confidence in the conduct of the national struggle, ultimately

412 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

discredited the power, prestige and patriotism of the Hindus,
the national majority, undermined their confidence and
mortgaged the destiny of the country to the anti-nat ional
forces. Savarkar's insight perceived this danger and he fore-
warned the people and applied all his energies to averting
the colossal disaster which was ushered in by the Gandhian
lead. But with herculean efforts he could not avert the vivi-
section of the Motherland. The Hindu Mahasabha lacked
full-time workers. The party had no ^ dailies ’ to back up
their propaganda and leaders. There were few weeklies ixt
District places, but they also suffered foi' want of active
support. The culpable boycott of the so-called nationalist but
in fact commercialized press and the Press Agencies on
Savarkar’s statements and speeches was no less responsible
for this fate. The news agencies that could give full and
roaring publicity to Jinnah’s anti-national outbursts, state-
ments and speeches, suppressed wickedly the views, speeches
and statements of Savarkar and whenever they broadcast
them, they dropped out most pertinent criticism of the
Britishers and the Congress party and his constructive and
valuable advice to his countrymen. And when these fabricated
extracts came down to the commercialized papers, they did the
rest to Savarkar’s statements and speeches. The ignorant and
superstitious masses were not knowing what was happening.
In fact, those capitalists and moneyed men who had contribut-
ed heavily to the Congress press and propaganda for years,
were not now prepared to lose all investment by incurring
the displeasure of the ruling party in the country. In such
a state of affairs, Savarkar’s warnings went unheard and he
lost his battle for Akhand Hindusthan. That way his fate is
no better than the fate of Burke and Demosthenes, the two
great pathetic figures in the political history of the world. In
his brilliant essay on Edmund Burke, John Churton Collins
observed : “ Both (Burke and Demosthenes) animated by

the purest motives, patriots to the innermost fibre, with no
thought, with no aim, but for the public good, wore out their
lives in leading forlorn hopes and in fighting losing battles.
Both were prophets with a curse of Cassandra upon them, to
be found wiser after the event, to be believed when all was
lost.” Add the third name of Savarkar to the line of these

THE MAN

413

great orators and read the lines again. Telling his readers that
Demosthenes saw Athens at the feet of Macedonian despot,
and Burke saw England dismembered of America, Mr. Collins
goes on to say : “Of the superhuman efforts made by the
great Athenian to retrieve the disasters in which the neglect
of his warnings had involved his countrymen, there was not
one which was not thwarted either by a cruel fortune or by
the perfidy and levity of those whom he was striving in their
own despite to save.” ^ Savarkar strove his utmost to avert
the greatest betrayal in human history and the colossal
disaster, but was thwarted by the perfidy, levity and betrayal
of his contemporaries. Nevertheless, his failure was more
glorious than the ignoble success of his political opponents.

As for the Independence that came, it did not come as a
result of the Congress struggle alone which was fought out
by the Socialists in 1942. It is ludicrous to say that the battle
was fought in 1942 and the victory came in 1947. The final
victory was won when politics was carried into the Indian
Army, when patriotism took fire in the ranks of the Indian
armed forces, when militarized Indians thus inspired with a
great ideal rose in revolt under the lead of Ras Behari Bose
and Netaji Subhas Bose. The British Imperialists, consider-
ably weakened by World War II, realized that it was
impossible to keep India in bondage any more for they had no
faithful army. The army, that was entrusted with the work,
had turned their guns towards their heads. The Prime
Minister of Britain, Mr. Attlee, stated before the House of
Commons on March 15, 1946, on the occasion of making a
declaration of the proposed transfer of power to India, that
the national idea had spread right through, not the least
perhaps among some of the soldiers who had done such
wonderful service in the war. Mr. Fenner Brockway, the
Political Secretary of the Independent Labour Party of
England, gave three reasons for the transfer of power by
Britain to India. He said that the Indian people were deter-
mined to achieve Independence ; secondly, there was the
revolt of the Royal Indian Navy and that the Indian forces
could not be relied upon for serving Britain’s purposes, and

I Twentieth Century Essays And Addresses^ edited by W. A. J.
Archbold, p. 175.

414 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

thirdly, Britain did not want to estrange India which was a
great market and a source of foodstuffs for Britain. Though
Brockway did not mention directly the I.N.A., it was dear
that the revolt in the armed forces had bent them to the
inevitable. Then who had truly worked towards that end,
the carrying of the fire of patriotism into the ranks of the
Indian army ever since 1908 ? And who made heroic
attempts despite the curses of the Congressmen and Congre.ss
journals to preach militarization and impress upon patriotic
youths the importance of entering the Army, Navy and Air
Forces ? It was Savarkar and Savarkar alone. At last the
destined leader, Netaji Subhas Bose, seized the opportunity,
and reaped the fruit of the pioneer efforts of Ras Behari Bose
and the militarization policy of Savarkar. History will record
this. Viewed in this light Savarkar has achieved his goal.
The heroic war inaugurated by the heroes of 1857 for winning
back the independence was fought out to a successful end by
the sacrifice of thousands of revolutionaries of Ram Singh
Kuka, Wasudeo Balwant, the Abhinava Bharat, the Anusilan
Samiti, and other organizations in Bengal and the Ghadr ; the
heroic sufferers and patriots in the Congress, the valiant
fighters of the Party of Bhagat Singh and the pioneer services
of the Liberals.

And what about other principles for which Savarkar stood ?
The national script of India is now the Devanagari, the Lingua
Franca is now Hindi. Savarkar has been struggling hard
since 1908 for investing Hindi and the Nagari script with
national honour. That dream has been ultimately realized.
He worked for it in the Andcimans, he struggled for spreading
the movement all over the country from Ratnagiri and after
his release in 1937 the movement gathered force and at last
the Hindu Sanghatanist forces purged the Hindi Sahitya
Sammelan of Gandhian influence and won a resounding victory.
But the finishing stroke was given by Savarkar to the cult of
Hindustani during the annual session of the Hindi Sahitya
Sammelan held in Bombay in December 1947. Addressing the
Session, Savarkar warned the leaders of the Sammelan against
the threats of Gandhiji and Nehru and asked the delegates
and the one hundred and fifty one members of the Consti-
tuent Assembly who had signed their pledge to support

THE MAN

415

Sanskritized Hindi and the Nagari Script to achieve their
object in spite of those threats. He added that the interests
of the nation must be their sole concern and above the threats,
fasts and fads of Gandhiji and Nehru.

The Indian Republic has also come into being on January
26, 1950. The sovereignty is now in the hands of the people.

But this is not the end of Savarkar’s mission. For making
tliis free India an up-to-date and powei’ful nation, along with
the defence problem, the labour problem must be attended to
and solved satisfactorily. With the growing industrialization
and the growing agricultural needs, the labour problem and
the agrarian problem are coming to a head and they have
begun to affect the destiny of political parties and leaders in
India. As the labour problem affected Mazzini’s leadership
in a way in his old age, Savarkar the leader of the Hindu
Mahasabha is not less affected by it.

For the solution of the labour problem, Savarkar has his
own nationalistic approach. To him both Manu and Marx
are not infalliable and omniscient. According to him the
Marxian approach is one of the many remedies suggested for
the removal of human ills as those of Darwin and Freud, who
also diagnosed the ills of humanity in their own way. Being
a rationalist, Savarkar is not a believer in the orthodox church
of Marx. But a lover, promoter and upholder as he is of the
machine age, he understands that social equality and social
justice are the culmination of the machine age. In his scheme of
things the labour problem was upto the day of Independence
a limb of the nation that was to be set free. With the freedom
and progress of the nation, he believed that the fate of
labourers must improve. That is why he gave more
importance to the Pakistan problem that also involved
economically and politically the destiny of India and her
problem of peace and safety. National freedom and national
security are the prerequisites for practising any scheme
concerning land, labour and industries. But then the modern
youth, the laboxirers and workers did not amply understand
why Savarkar’s party was not the least moved whenever there
were unrest, agitation and strikes in the labour area. There
was a fair chance for the party to practise the principle of
national co-ordination of class interests and fight for the

416 SAVARKAR AND HIS TIMES

workers. In fact, the much advertised socialist in Nehru is
doing the same thing. But because Savarkar had thrown all
his might and main for averting the national disaster, he had
no time to pay attention to the labour and agrarian problems.

India is now coming over to the ideal of Savarkar. If India
is to survive, she must accept Savarkarism. She must approach
all social and political problems with Savarkar 's realistic,
scientific, and nationalistic angles. She must mechanize her
agriculture, must gradually liquidate all landlordism, nation-
alize all key industries and industrialize on a broader scale.
She must Hinduise all key-posts and militarize the Hindus.
Not conflagration of class interests, but interests of the nation
should be her motto.

The ideal of Savarkar desires that India must follow her
bent. India must represent the culture of the national
majority, the Hindus. Not the prestige and greatness of one
individual, but the prosperity and security of the common
man must be her goal. It has been said of Bismark that he
made Germany great, but the Germans too small. Savarkarism
says that this should not be allowed to happen in India. Some
say that India will be a China. That cannot happen to India,
if she learns as early as possible that neither a family rule,
nor a group rule, nor one parly rule leads to the prosperity
and security of the nation, but the joint responsibility and real
democracy lead to its prosperity and security. But India
would be a Poland, if the present leadership hugs the wrong
belief that Indian history began with its rise and cuts itself
from the spirit, history and names of Vikramaditya, Shali-
vahan, Shivaji, Guru Govind Singh, Dayananda, Vivekananda
and Tilak. They are India’s representative guides, gurus,
inspirers, and saviours, who teach India how to survive with
honour and self-respect in this world. And after having made
sure of security and survival, India can look forward to
Buddha and Mahaveer.

And if India is true to these saviours, India would realize
Savarkar’s another prophecy made ten years ago. He said :

“ If you wish, O Hindus, to prosper as a great and glorious
Hindu Nation under the sun, and you will have a claim on it,
that State must be established under the Hindu Flag. This
dream would be realized during this or coming generation. If

THE MAN 417

it is not realized, I may be styled as a day-dreamer, but if it
comes true, I would stand forth as its prophet.

I am bequeathing this legacy to you.”

If in the history of modern India there is any great leader
who neither pursued fame nor followed fortune, nor individual
greatness, discarding national interests, national integrity and
national honour, that great leader is Veer Savarkar and as
such he would carry influence with posterity. As he was
not a party to the vivisection of India, which is a heritage of
sorrow and disgrace to posterity and the fu^eatest betrayal
ever known in human history, Savarkar would be a beacon-
light of hope, guidance, inspiration and courage.

INDEX

AVihinava Bharat, 9, 24, 27, 29, 30,

31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 44, 48,
49, 57, 58, 60, 78, 107, 109, 125,
133, 134, 197, 201, 3.58, 411, 413.

Acharya, M. P. T., 33.

Khan, H.H., the, 41, 50, 254.
Avarkar, 166, 167, 182, 185, 187,
188, 396.

Aiyar, Sir C. P. Ramasv/ami, 278,
288

Aivor, V. V. S., 32, 40, 41, 44,

21, 72. 178.

Aklred, Gu/ A., G5, 67, 81, 83, 84,
1VV;>. 235, 4.V0.

Alfrc I \^V’atsoii, Sir, 259, 260.
Ambedkar. Dr., 175, 177, 178, 204,
214, 222, 211, 224, 254, 271, 288,
21M, 306, 34J, 354, 401, 409.

AniL-ry, L. S., 270.

Andrews, C. F,, 144.

Aney, Lolianayak, 198, 205, 269,
234, 295, ,306, 307, 309.

Arya Samaj, 130, 166, 167, 185, 209,
212, 213, ‘289, 314, 315, 395.

Asaf All, 29, 34, 42, 47, 340.

Aire, Acliarya, 54, 62, 122, 126, 186.
Attlee, 339, 343, 414.

A^ad, Maulana, 279, 281, 333, 343,
3,53, 395.

Banerjee, Surendranath. 1, 15, 18,

32, 42, 50, 51, 111, 112, 200, 209,
293, 409.

Banerjee, Upendranath, 144, 388.
Bapat, Senapati, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38,
39, 45, 141, 178, 211.

Besant, Annie, 150, 231, 234.
Bhopatkar, L. B., 211, 329, 336, 339,
340, 344, 349, 352, 371, 372, 374,
375, 376, 377, 378, 383, 388, 390.
Blunt, W. S., 56, 57.

Bose, Anand Mohan, 1.

Bose, Khudiram, 38, 350.

Bose, Ras Behari, 260, 261, 407, 409,
413, 414.

Bose, Saiat, 308.

Bose, Subhas, 34, 61, 72, 101, 102,
198, 251, 260, 283, 293, 333, 408,
409, 413, 414.

Brian d. Monsieur, 83, 84, 85.
Buddha, Lord, 169, 190, 237, 417.

Cama, Madame, 30, 35, 40, 57, 72, 73,
81, 142, 201, 234, 318, 358.

Chandavarkar, Sir V. N., 213, 278,
281, 323.

Chat ter jee, N. C. 300, 341.

Chatterjee, Ramananda, 172, 278,
410.

Chattopadhyaya, Virendranath, 30,
53, 133, 409.

Chiang Kai Shek, 179, 274.

China, 27, 35, 61, 287, 416.

Cliirol, Sir Valentine, 9, 39, 41, 59,
62.

Christ, Jesus, 88. 200.

Ciiri.stian, Minority, 234, 397.

Chuvehili, Winston, 57 , 72, 244, 272,
299, 301, 316, 394.

Congress, I.N., 1, 15, 24, 101, 137,
149, 159, 194, 217, 229, 242, 278,
279, 280, 320.

Coutchino, D. Y., 63.

Cripps, Sir Stafford, 275, 276, 277,
278, 282, 286, 288, 291, 300, 343,
416.

Curzon, liord, 49.

Dadabhai Naoroji, 1, 30, 31, 37,
203, 234, 293, 409.

Daphtary, C. K. 376, 377, 378.

Das, C. R., 151, 293, 376.

Das, P. R., 376, 383, 386.

Dayananda, 1, 2, 28, 107, 109, 203,
224, 237, 409, 411, 416.

Desai, Bhulabhai, 307, 319, 332, 336.

Desai, Morarji, 190, 370, 371, 374,
379 382

De Valera, 2, 7, 72, 293, 294, 312,
373.

Dharap, K. N., 371.

Dhingra, Madanlal, 30, 49-52, 54-58,

France, 33, 81, 82, 83.

Gandhiji, 21, 29, 45-47, 54, 132, 133,
144, 145, 148, 151, 160, 164, 166,
167, 176, 177, 194, 196-198, 200,
202, 204, 209, 212, 219, 221, 253,
257,. 263, 270, 284, 285, 293-97, SOS-
OS, 311-14, 317-19, 322-27, 331,
332, 345, 347, 353, 354, 358, 361,
364-69, 371-73, 377-83, 387, 394,
397, 398, 400-03, 410, 414, 415.

Germany, 29, 34, 83, 84, 133, 245,
246 272.

Ghadr Party, 9, 61, 133, 134, 136,
413.

420

INDEX

Ghosh, Arvind, 37, 209.

Gokhale, G. K., 15, 18, 21, 38, 39,
40, 41, 52, 105, 112, 113, 116, 150,
175, 200, 234, 293, 355, 398, 409.

Golwalkar, M. S., 387.

Gorky, 400.

Gulabchand Hirachand, 341.

Gupta, Ghanashyam, 314.

Hardayal, LaJa, 30, 33, 57, 112, 113,
133, 224, 409.

Kedgewar, Dr. K. B., 175.

Henry Cotton, 31, 32.

Hinduism, 129, 165, 177, 201, 225.

Hitler, 119, 244, 272, 311, 394.

Hotilal Varma, 36, 103, 111.

Humanism, 235, 236.

Human State, 139, 235, 236.

Huq, Fazlul, 302, 399.

I. N. A., 58, 61, 101, 260, 261, 333,
339, 340, 342, 413.

Iyengar, K. V. R., 145.

Jagdish Prasad, Sir, 214, 269, 317.

Jai Prakash Narayan, 305, 389.

Jamsahib of Nawanagar, 219.

Japan, 18, 61, 402.

Jayakar, Dr., 151, 194, 205, 269, 307,
308, 349, 395, 409, 410.

Jean Jaures, 81.

Jean Languet, 81.

Jews, 234, 397.

Jinnah, M. A., 206, 207, 251-53, 265,
267, 268, 270, 271, 287, 292, 294-
96, 301, 306, 308, 311, 320, 322-24,
326, 327, 334, 340, 343-48, 381, 397,
403, 412.

Jogendra Singh, Sir, 218, 288, 328.

Kaiser, the, 35.

Kalelkar, Kaka, 19, 22, 54.

Kelkar, N. C., 19, 20, 52, 85, 126,
148, 149, 151, 153, 175, 178, 186,
187, 194, 198, 213, 220, 310, 396,
409.

Ker, J. C., 132, 134-36.

Ketkar, Dr., 178, 179, 185.

Ketkar, G. V., 211, 221, 371, 375,
390.

Khanna, Meherchand, 292, 305.

Khaparde, Babarao, 311.

Khare, Dr., 190, 309, 328, 356, 388,
389

Kher! B. G., 24, 335.

Kunzru, Pandit, 269.

Lahiri, Ashutosh, 144, 283, 293, 388.

Lajpat Rai, Lala, 18, 37, 40, 41, 42,
160. 194, 200, 203, 206, 224, 231,
409.

Landlordism, 249.

La.ski, Prof. Harold J., 227.

Lenin, 65. 399, 400.

Liaqat Ali Khan, 319, 332, 338,
390.

Linlithgow, Lord, 214, 253, 271, 305.
Louis Fischer, 286, 287.

Louis Renault, 83.

MacDonald, Ramsay, 35, 400.
Macaulay, 31, 256, 316, 393.
Madkhofkar, G. T., 121, 126, 186,
187.

IMahmod Ali, 6.1, 159.

Maivi\'a. Madan Mohan, 346.
Mancherjee Bliownagari, Sir, 50,
51.

Mandlik, R. N., 371, 374, 375.
Marx, Karl, 223, 245, 415.

Masaryk, 46, 240.

Mazzini, 2, 5, 7, 58, 59, 62, 65, 400,
401-, 415.

Meher Ali, Yusuf, 179.

Mehta, Jamnadas, 148, 196, 213,
283, 311, 319, 371, 375, 376, 378.
Mehta, Phirozeshah, 15, 42, 230, 234.
Minto, Lord, 38, 39, 47, 64.

Mirza Ismail, Sir, 271, 288, 320, 321.
Montagu, E. S., 138, 139, 150.
Mookerjee, Dr. S. P., 210, 269, 276,
292, 293, 300-04, 317, 329, 330,
334, 335, 336. 339, 344, 349, 351,
382, 385, 408.

Moonje, Dr., 150, 151, 153, 160, 178,
194, 198, 202, 212, 252, 269, 270,

276, 293, 300, 313, 320, 329, 332,
334, 347, 405, 409.

Morley, Lord, 38, 29, 49, 50, 400.
Mountbatten, Lord, 350.

Mudaliar, Ramaswami, 214.
Mukerjee, Dr, Radha Kumud, 328.
Munshi, K. M., 190, 303, 307.

Naidu, Dr. P. Varadarajalu, 218.
Naidu, Sarojini, 30, 204, 230, 242,
315 395.

Narirkan, K. F., 61, 197, 199, 311,
410.

Nehru, Pandit Motilal, 151.

Nehru, Pandit Jawaharlal, 31, 56,
119, 188, 189, 197, 198, 205, 216,
219-21, 246, 254, 259, 260, 263,

277, 279, 281, 285, 291, 293, 297,
319, 320, 333, 335, 336, 338, 339,
343, 345-49, 352, 353, 359-65, 378,
380, 381, 390, 395, 397, 403, 410,
413, 415, 416.

Neogy, K. C., 283.

Nizam, H.E.H., 202, 208, 209, 212,
361, 402.

INDEX

421

Paine, Thomas, 239, 240, 400.

Pal, B. C., 40-44, 50, 53, 83, 151,
209, 409.

Pal, Niranjc^n, 44, 51, 54, 67, 408.

Parmananda, Bhai, 30, 136, 144,
160, 178, 198, 224. 252, 293, 340,
409, 410.

Paranjpe, R. P., 15, 20, 21, 311,
320, 329.

Parsees 234

Patel, Sardar, 263, 336, 338-40, 342,
346-50, 352, 354, 386, 387, 410.

Patel, V. J., 144, 148.

Father, S. R., 410.

Patil, S. K., 199.

Pattabhi Sitaramayva, Dr., 279, 312,
320, 410.

Patwardhan, Achyutrao, 178, 391.

Paul Cambon, 81, 82.

Ranade, Maharshi, 1, 6, 7, 15, 166,
185, 391, 403.

Raja Bansilal, Narayanlal, 348.

Rajdji, 58, 198, 262, 263, 274, 275,
281, 284, 287, 288, 290, 300, 303-05,
307, 322, 323, 325, 326, 328, 332,
336, 395, 410.

Rajan. T. S. S., 30, 217.

Rajendra Prasad, Dr., 285, 352, 358,
389, 399.

Rana Sardar Singhji, 30, 35.

Renan, 226, 227.

Roosevelt, F. D., 272, 316.

Rousseau, 62, 401.

Roy, M. N., 58, 190, 198, 199, 320,
391, 409, 410.

R.S.S., 175, 222, 340, 357.

Sapru, Sir Tej Bahadur, 220, 269-
71, 286, 294, 306, 307, 308, 319,
326, 328, 332, 336, 395.

Sarkar, N. R., 217, 307.

Sastri Srinivas, 221, 270, 278, 279,
281, 329, 395, 405, 409, 410.

Setalvad, Sir Chimanlal, 213, 269,
270.

Shaukat Ali, Maulana, 175, 176.

Shraddhananda, 147, 160, 194, 203,
224, 225.

Shukla, R. S., 30, 338.

Shyamji Krishna Varma, Pandit,
25, 28, 29, 32, 43, 53, 81, 84, 85.

Sikandar Hyat Khan, Sir, 30, 219,
262, 275.

Sinn Feiners, 94.

Socialist Party, 353, 357.

Srivastava, Sir J. P., 276, 288, 292,
306.

Subramanya Bharati, 38.

Suhrawardy. 338, 343, 378, 380.

Tagore, Rabindranath, lOG, 143.

Tara Singh, Master, 289, 328, 329,
350, 387, 397.

Tatnis, R. K., 371.

Tilak, Lokamanya, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7,
12, 15, 17-20, 24, 25, 28, 37-40,
119, 131-33, 143, 144, 151, 161,
175, 179, 185, 188, 189, 200, 203,

204, 213, 219, 221, 224, 237, 255,

293, 294, 312, 391, 396, 403, 409,

416.

Tolstoy, 240, 400.

Tandon, Babu Purushottamdas, 354,
365.

Untouchables, advice to, 171.

U.S.A., 112, 244, 245, 271, 273, 286,
304, 308, 317.

Varma, Gyanchand, 30, 40, 54, 178.

Vijayaraghavachari, 147, 217, 409.

Voltaire, 62, 181, 355, 401.

Walchand Hirachand, 219.

Washington, 88, 96, 400.

Wavell, Lord, 330, 332, 345, 347,
350.

Wedgewood, Colonel, 144.

Wylhe, Curzon, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53.

^TR sr?rR?r sRKifr,

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